26 Facts About Nalaka Godahewa

Nalaka Godahewa, is a Sri Lankan Businessman a Corporate Executive and a former Cabinet Minister.

Nalaka Godahewa was appointed as the Minister of Mass Media on 18 April 2022.

Nalaka Godahewa had served as the Chairman, Securities Exchange Commission ; Chairman, Sri Lanka Tourism ; and Managing Director, Sri Lanka Insurance.

At the first election he faced after entering politics, Dr Nalaka Godahewa topped the preferential votes in the Gampaha District obtaining 325,479 votes He was ranked 3rd in the entire country in terms of the number of votes received by a candidate at the 2020 general election.

In November 2012 Nalaka Godahewa presented a three-year roadmap for capital market development in Sri Lanka.

Nalaka Godahewa graduated with a BSc Honours degree in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from University of Moratuwa.

Nalaka Godahewa holds a LLB degree from Buckinghamshire New University and an MBA from the PIM of University of Sri Jayewardenepura as well.

Nalaka Godahewa has received a PhD in Economics from the University of South Australia in 2008 Godahewa is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing of UK, and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants of UK.

Nalaka Godahewa managed several overseas operations for MAS Holdings in countries such as Vietnam, Madagascar Indonesia and India gaining experience in setting up international joint venture partnerships.

Nalaka Godahewa has served both in private sector and public sector.

Nalaka Godahewa was appointed as competent authority of Sri Lanka Insurance in June 2009 with the task of handling the company affairs.

Nalaka Godahewa was instrumental in launching the new advertising campaign of Sri Lanka Insurance 'Like Father Like Mother ' in 2009 highlighting the two core strengths of Sri Lanka insurance of having the government protection and private sector type service standards.

Nalaka Godahewa rebranded life and motor insurance products of SLIC making both categories the fastest growing insurance brands in the market.

Hand in hand with Gotabaya Rajapksa, the Chairman of the SLIC-controlled Apollo hospitals, Nalaka Godahewa, who was the Managing Director of Sri Lanka Insurance took a series of measures to turn around the company which was rebranded as Lanka Hospitals and became an industry bench mark for service excellence in the health care industry.

Nalaka Godahewa has been commended by key corporate personalities in the country for creating a highly efficient and investor friendly management culture within a government organization and for his highly strategic and focused approach towards developing tourism in the post war Sri Lanka.

Nalaka Godahewa was invited by UNWTO on several occasions to talk about Sri Lanka Tourism.

Nalaka Godahewa took a special interest in promoting Chinese tourism to Sri Lanka and made a special contribution by bringing to limelight the historical records of the 14th century Chinese Naval Admiral Zheng Nalaka Godahewa who visited Sri Lanka 6 times.

In 2012 Nalaka Godahewa launched a coffee table book named Refreshingly Sri Lanka jointly with the photographer Dilum Alagiyawanna to support the Tourism promotions efforts of the country.

However Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau changed the 'Refreshingly Sri Lanka' tagline immediately following the exit of Nalaka Godahewa showing sharp differences of opinion within the Ministry.

In October 2013 Nalaka Godahewa presented to the public the first year achievements at SEC which demonstrated that the implementation of the capital market development plan was on track.

Since Dr Nalaka Godahewa was appointed to lead SEC, he was instrumental in ushering a period of excellent market performance which was reported in daily FT under the heading Capital raised via Bourse booms to record Rs.

Dr Nalaka Godahewa was investigated in 2015 by FCID, a special police unit set up by the newly elected government, regarding a Board approved Rs 5 million sponsorship given for youth education by the Securities Exchange Commission where he was a former Chairman.

Nalaka Godahewa contested the 2020 parliamentary elections as a candidate of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, the party of president Rajapaksa.

Nalaka Godahewa won the most preferential votes from the Gampaha District and was elected to parliament on 5 August 2020.

Nalaka Godahewa won 325,479 votes, the most number of votes won by a candidate contesting in a Sri Lankan parliamentary election for the first time.

Nalaka Godahewa continued as a Cabinet minister for a brief period but left the government and sat in the opposition as he was not in agreement with the government In December 2022, Dr Nalaka Godahewa formed his own political party, the Freedom People's Front, with 'Helicopter' as its electoral symbol.