Colombo International Tea Convention

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Tea, A Lifestyle & A Livelihood

Colombo International Tea Convention 2024

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Tea, A Lifestyle & A Livelihood

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Tea, A Lifestyle & A Livelihood

The Theme

The Colombo International Tea Convention 2024 shines the spotlight on Tea, in all its forms, as an integral part of lifestyle and culture and, as a livelihood, to promote sustainable thinking and collective action to uplift tea growing communities and environments across the world.

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Meet the speakers at CITC 2024

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Dr. Rohan Pethiyagoda
Biodiversity scientist / Linnean Medal Winner (Zoology)

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Mr. Mitsunori Saeki
President
Mitsui Norin Co. LTD

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Dr. Ebrahim Afshar
Managing Director
Ahmad Tea

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Mr. Shiraz Akbarally
Director
Akbar Brothers

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Mr. Ganaka Herath
Managing Partner - Sri Lanka
McKinsey & Company

Dilhan Fernando

Mr. Dilhan Fernando
Chief Executive Officer
Dilmah Ceylon Tea Company PLC

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Dr. Ravi Fernando
Chairman/CEO
Global Strategic Corporate Sustainability Pvt.Ltd

Sharon Hall

Dr Sharon Hall
Chief Executive
United Kingdom Tea & Infusions Association

Ms. Sineenart Chuichulcherm 12

Ms. Sineenart Chuichulcherm
Chief Procurement Officer – Global
Lipton Teas and Infusions

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Mr. Sanjaya Herath
Chairman
Colombo Tea Traders' Association

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Mr. Niraj De Mel
Chairman
Sri Lanka Tea Board

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Dr. Keerthi Mohotti
Ex Director/ CEO
Tea Research Institute of Sri Lanka

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Ms. Shabnam Webber
Director
Canadian Tea Association

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Mr. Ganesh Babu Krishnappa
Managing Director - India & SBU Head APAC & Africa
BOOMITRA

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Mr. Suranga Herath
CEO
English Tea Shop UK Ltd.

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Mr. Dan Bolton
Magazine Publisher | Podcast Host
Tea Journal

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Dr. Ines Kaempfer
CEO
The Centre for Child Rights and Business

Mr. Jagath Pathirana 12

Mr. Jagath Pathirana
Chairman
Federation of Tea Smallholder Development Societies

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Dr. Roshan Rajadurai
Managing Director - Plantations
Hayleys Group

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James Mackay
Sustainability & Technology Lead
Pepsi Lipton

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Mr. Sebastian Michaelis
Head of Tea
TATA consumer products

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Mr. Mufaddal Jafferjee
Partner
Jaferjee Brothers

Mr. Arthur D. Sewe 123

Mr. Arthur D. Sewe
Chairman
East African Tea Trade Association

Dr. Mao Limin 12

Dr. Mao Limin
Director
Tea Committee of China Chamber of Commerce of Import and Export of Foodstuffs

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Mr. Ganesh Deivanayagam
Chairman, Tea Exporters Association
Co-Chairman, CITC-2024

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Mr. Anil Cooke
Managing Director, Asia Siyaka Commodities
Co-Chairman, CITC-2024

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Ms. Kristina Tucker
The Republic of Tea
Minister of Commerce & Enlightenment

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Prof. Buddhi Marambe
Professor
Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya

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Ms. Gundega Silniece
Director
Tea Tea Me

Mr. Christian Dinkler 123

Mr. Christian Dinkler
Martin Bauer GmbH & Co KG

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Mr. Shreedharan Chandran
President
The United Planters’ Association of Southern India (UPASI)

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Dr. Madhuri Nanda
Director - South Asia
Rainforest Alliance

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Mr. Tom Franks
Chair of the Board of Directors
Ethical Tea Partnership

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Dr. Pradeep Uluwaduge
Executive Chairman
Browns Plantations

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Mr. Lionel Herath
Chairman
Sri Lanka Tea Factory Owners Association

Dr. Thusitha Bandara

Dr. Thusitha Bandara
Director, Low Country Operations , Sustainability Research and Development
Bogawantalawa Tea Estates

Mr. Nathanael Lim - picture

Mr. Nathanael Lim
Insights Manager Beverage Asia, Euromonitor International

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Mr. Nadeem Ahmed
Owner
Global Tea & Commodities Ltd

Mr. Arutselvan 12

Mr. Arutselvan Arumugam
Program Consultant - Sri Lanka
Fairtrade

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Mr. Ming Xie
General Manager
Hunan East Land Tea Co., Ltd.

Mr. Bharat Arulsamy

Mr. Bharat Arullsamy
Chairman
Plantation Human Development Trust

Dr. M.S. Anuruddha

Dr. M. S. Anuruddha
Director General
Sri Lanka Tea Board

Mr. Sundarrajan

Mr. Sundarrajan Gomathinayagam
CEO
Surinova Private Limited.

Mr. Shanavas Bavu 12

Mr. Shanavas Bavu
Director
Innopolis Bio Innovations Private Ltd

Mr. Jeevan Gnanam 123

Mr. Jeevan Gnanam
Co-Founder and CFO
SpectrifyAI

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Mr. Johann Tranchell
Director Sales and Marketing
Polydime Plastics Industries Pvt Ltd

Dr. Biplap Adhikari

Dr. Biplab Adhikari
Principal Scientist
Tea Research Association, India

Klaus Peters, IMA Group tea & herbs division general manager

Mr. Klaus Peters
Managing Director
IMA Tea & Herbs

Mr. Alan Lai
Founder and CEO
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Mr. Nadeem Ahmed

Mr Nadeem Ahmed is a serial entrepreneur. Under his leadership, Global Tea and Commodities Ltd have grown from a small start up with 2 employees in 1991 to over 4500 people today.

Born in Kolkata, India, and after graduating in Economics and Finance from St Xavier College, Kolkata, Nadeem set out to start and grow the company in distant UK, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Somalia, Sudan and other countries.

In the last 25 years, Global Tea has made 16 acquisitions ranging from Brooke Bond Tea, Red Mountain Coffee (from Unilever UK) to the acquisition of over 50,000 Acres of Tea, Coffee and Macadamia nuts plantations from the British Government (CDC) in Tanzania and Malawi, 8000 Acres of Makandi Tea and Coffee (ex Lonhro) to Typhoo Tea Ltd (ex Premier Foods Ltd), an iconic British Brand acquired in partnership with Apeejay Surrendra Ltd.

Value addition has been the focus of the company and Kericho Gold and Baraka Chai in Kenya are now the second largest packers of tea in Africa. The company is steadily growing towards acquiring the largest market share of the UK private label business while Kericho Gold has over 70% of the Premium Branded Market in Africa.

In 2005 Nadeem set up the first tea export processing zone in the African tea industry and Gold Crown Foods (EPZ) Ltd was formed in Mombasa. This is today the largest exporter of value added tea from Kenya with exports of over 15 million kgs which is over 90% of all Kenyan valued added tea exports. During the same year, Global Tea was conferred with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for Sustainable Development. In addition, Global Tea is also the largest Independent Bulk tea exporter from Kenya with over 60 million KGs exported in 2017 beat Unilever to no 2 position.

The coffee and Macadamia nut plantations in Malawi are now 100% export oriented units, with state of the art processing factories exporting to Japan, USA, Europe, China, Taiwan, Korea etc.

The group sales are in excess of USD$300 million and is amongst the largest tea companies in the world.

Nadeem is actively involved with many social and charitable institutions to name a few as follows;

Patron of the British Asian Trust founded by Prince Charles in 2007
Member of Institute of Directors, London
Member of The Arts Club, London

Dr. Pradeep Uluwaduge

Having counted over twenty years of versatile experiences in the fields of Human Resource Management and Development, Legal & Corporate Affairs and Plantations, both in Sri Lanka and overseas, Dr. Pradeep Uluwaduge currently performs as the Executive Chairman of Browns Plantations, the plantation cluster under LOLC Group which operates in Sri Lanka, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and China. Also, he performs as the Group Chief HR Officer of LOLC Group overseeing Human Resource Management and Development functions of the entire Group covering both local and foreign operations. Further, he serves on a number of boards of other subsidiary companies under LOLC Group.

Dr. Uluwaduge obtained his Ph.D in Management and Business Studies at the Faculty of Management and Finance of the University of Colombo. He also completed his Master of Laws (LL.M) degree and Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) degree from the University of Colombo. He took oaths as an Attorney-at-Law from the Supreme Court in Sri Lanka in 2003.

Dr. Uluwaduge is a Fellow Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (FCMA), UK and a member of Chartered Global Management Accountants (CGMA), USA. He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Human Resource Management from the UK and is a Certified Professional Coach (CPC) from the Australian Federation University. He is a life member of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka and a Member of the prestigious Singapore Academy of Law and a professional member of the Singapore Human Resource Institute.

He was awarded as the Best under 40 Business Leader by the Alumni Association of the Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) in 2016 and he served as a Council Member of the National Chamber of Commerce from 2017 to 2023. He is a visiting faculty for the MBA programme, University of Colombo and a visiting supervisor for M.Phil/Ph.D Programme of the Business School, Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT). Further, he has made scholarly contributions in publishing research articles in national and international journals. He is passionate about gardening, shooting sport and collecting antiques.

Ms. Kristina Tucker

Kristina Richens Tucker believes in the beauty and power of the leaf. In her role at The Republic of Tea, her mission is to educate and inspire people throughout the world about tea, its varieties, origins, rituals and health benefits.

Kristina is responsible for overseeing the internal and external communications, public relations and philanthropic efforts for The Republic of Tea. She also serves as the company’s spokesperson.

Kristina brings over 25 years of experience to her role. She began with the company in January 2003 as Minister of West Commerce and was promoted to Minister of Education in August 2007, where she developed the first, much-appreciated Ambassador (broker) Training Manual and completed the first tea educational videos as seen on YouTube. She was then promoted to Minister of Commerce, where she is responsible for management of the national sales team, international sales development, sales systems, analysis and new business development and initiatives. In 2021, she was promoted to Vice President of Sales and Communications.

Prior to joining The Republic of Tea, Kristina was National Sales Manager, Natural Foods, for Just Desserts, Inc., Oakland, Calif. She also worked for Allegro Coffee Company in Boulder, Col., a subsidiary of Whole Foods Markets, Inc.

Kristina travels extensively, counting the finest tea and herb growing countries of the world – including China, India, Sri Lanka, Japan and South Africa – among her many destinations. She also holds a certificate of completion from Front Range Herbal Institute and Specialty Tea Certification program. She earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Delaware, and in 2020 obtained a master’s degree in strategic communication from the prestigious American University in Washington D.C.

In 2018, Kristina was elected to the Board of Trustees of the American Herbal Products Association and in 2022, she was elected as Chair of the Board of Trustees. She served on the Demeter USA Biodynamic Trade Committee. She also served as the Board President of Fresh Start, a Denver, Colo. non-profit, from 2010 to 2016.

In addition to tea and travel, she enjoys fitness, sustainable living and cooking. Kristina resides in Denver, Colorado and starts each day with a cup of Golden Yunnan or Double Green Matcha Tea.

About The Republic of Tea:
The Republic of Tea enriches people’s lives through its great-tasting premium teas and herbs, education and innovation, as it emphasizes a “Sip by Sip Rather Than Gulp by Gulp” lifestyle. Founded in 1992, The Republic of Tea sparked a specialty tea revolution. Today the brand delivers an unequaled selection of the highest-quality teas, herbal blends, and nature-inspired sipware at an incredible value. The Republic of Tea’s collections boast over 350 all-natural premium teas and diverse offerings which include but are not limited to: Beautifying Botanicals®, organic SuperAdapt™ Teas, organic SuperHerb® Teas, Be Well® Teas, Bridgerton Teas, Downton Abbey® Teas, and organic Single Sips®. Further, The Republic of Tea is mindful of how its actions impact the greater community and actively supports organizations like Homeward Bound of Marin and The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). The Republic of Tea also works to elevate the consciousness of sustainability; it is a member of the Ethical Tea Partnership, Upcycled Food Association, Climate Collaborative and American Herbal Products Association. Certifications include Demeter USA Certified Biodynamic®, Gluten-Free certification, Non-GMO Project verification, OU Kosher certification, and USDA Organic certification.

Mr. Ganaka Herath

Ganaka is the Managing Partner of McKinsey’s Colombo, Sri Lanka office which was officially opened in 2018. Over the last two decades, he has served a multitude of clients including major global financial institutions and conglomerates in Asia, Europe, LATAM and the United States on a broad range of strategic issues. Prior to moving to Asia, he was a Partner in the Financial Institutions Group in McKinsey’s London office and led the EMEA Transaction Banking Practice. He's Leading efforts unlock financing for Bio DIversity enhancement and preservation in Sri Lanka. Led AI transformations for major conglomerates in Sri Lanka. Overall partner in charge of procurement transformation at major players in SL Apparel industry. Led effort to develop SME sales and credit operations strategy for one of the largest banks in Sri Lanka. Led the effort to develop a holistic country level digital strategy for Sri Lanka in 2018. Designing and implementing an end to end digital transformation for the commercial banking journeys of one of the UK’s largest Banks.

Developing 20 country EMEA wide corporate and transaction banking digital platform and product strategy for leading global universal bank. Developing global strategy for one of the largest digital wallet providers and identifying priority themes for European market. Redesigned operating model for top global technology provider for electronic payment transactions and value-added digital services. Developing a strategic alliance proposal to combine the capital market and transaction banking operations and technology platforms of two large African banks with operations in South Africa and across central/eastern Africa. Designing strategic plan to bring together the Global Market and Transaction Service businesses in a universal bank – final proposal was granted board approval.

Ganaka has an MBA with honours from the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) and a bachelor's degree with Honors in Economics from the University of Nottingham. Prior to joining McKinsey, Ganaka was a Transaction Banking Product Specialist and Relationship Manager at Citibank as well as a programme manager at Yahoo

Mr. Dilhan Fernando

Dilhan C. Fernando, the Chairman of Dilmah Tea, is the younger son of Dilmah Founder, Merrill J. Fernando. The names of Dilhan and his brother Malik form the 'Dilmah' brand, the first producer owned tea brand.

Mirroring his father's devotion to tea, Dilhan's mission is the fulfilment of the pledges his father made in the 1950s, as a young Tea man with a big dream. His commitment was to resist the commoditization that devastated a tea industry that was previously characterized by small, and passionate family enterprises. Merrill sought to bring quality and authenticity back to tea, and secondly, whilst doing so, to share the success of that business with the underprivileged.

Dilhan is the Director of the Dilmah School of Tea www.schooloftea.org, the first international school of tea, with sessions in Colombo, and in partnership with the Institute Paul Bocuse, also in Ecully, France. His desire to share the pleasure in tea with a new generation of tea drinkers saw the birth of the t-Series, designer gourmet teas www.teatimerocks.com and an entirely contemporary approach to a traditional beverage. He is described by Herve Fleury, Director of the Institute Paul Bocuse as, "a man who is passionate, totally supple in his expertise, simple and delicate in his approach and his words. In the very image of tea."

In addition to his responsibilities in tea, Dilhan also manages the humanitarian and environmental outcomes of Dilmah. These are the fulfilment of his family's commitment to making business a matter of human service. The MJF Charitable Foundation www.mjffoundation.org and Dilmah Conservation www.dilmahconservation.org utilise revenue from the global sales of Dilmah in implementing humanitarian and conservation projects in Sri Lanka. The MJF Foundation is one of the largest charitable foundations in Sri Lanka and has changed the lives of thousands of underprivileged people, working in the tea sector and in the wider community. Dilmah Conservation operates on a similar principle, using revenue from Dilmah to implement conservation, environmental education, habitat restoration projects and promote sustainability. Dilhan currently chairs the Biodiversity Sri Lanka Platform which was pioneered by Dilmah Conservation together with the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature). Dilhan is the Chairman of the United Nations Global Compact in Sri Lanka, a corporate sustainability initiative by the UN.