Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings PLC announced the appointment of Dr. Ravindra Ajith Fernando as an Independent Non-Executive Director, effective from January 10, 2024. Dr. Fernando is a University of Cambridge alumnus, having successfully completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainable Business in 2008 and a Master of Studies in Sustainability Leadership in 2014. He has an MBA from the University of Colombo and holds a Doctor of Business Administration Degree from the European Business School.

Dr. Fernando completed the Advanced Management Programme at the INSEAD Business School (France) and has been an Executive in Residence since 2010. He has been a Member of the Board of Study at the Postgraduate Institute of Management since March 2023 and is a Visiting Faculty member. In April 2020, he created the 21st Century Board Leadership Model-MasterClass for the Institute of Directors of Luxembourg.

In February 2023, he published '21st Century Leadership to Fight the Code Red for Business' (Archway Publishing USA). His career with multinationals spanned 1981-2007, with Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser and Smithkline Beecham International, covering Africa, the Middle East and Asia. He was the first CEO of the Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (2008-2011) and Operations Director of the Malaysia Blue Ocean Strategy Institute (2011-2016).

He was the first UN Global Compact Focal point 2007 and set up the UNGC Sri Lanka Network. Dr. Fernando serves on the boards of Global Strategic Corporate Sustainability (Pvt.) Ltd, Dilmah Ceylon Tea Company, Aitken Spence Plantation Managements PLC, UN Global Compact, LOLC Holdings and Ceylon Graphene Technologies Ltd. In 2007, the Global Strategy Leadership Award was presented to him by Professor Renee Mauborgne of INSEAD, at the World Strategy summit.