TESTIMONIALS
Prof Michael Driscoll
Vice chancellor and President
Among his many outstanding achievements perhaps the most impressive was his achievement of the new state of the art ICBT campus in Colombo, which I was fortunate to be able to visit near its completion. During his time at ICBT Mr.Pathirana built up an important legacy for ICBT and contributed to raising the international profile of Sri Lanka higher education. Middlesex University recognised this with the award of an Honorary Doctorate.
In my opinion, Mr.Pathirana is an outstanding individual. He has a very high level of experience, knowledge, and leadership capability. He is also a person of high integrity who can be depended upon to deliver what he promises. I recommend him for this important public and national role without reservatio
THAVATINSA MENDIS JAYASEKERA
BSc( Hons) Civil, MBA ( Col)
I knew Mohan’s specialty is in management and managing organizations than being an engineer. Even after completing the MBA Mohan was regularly in touch with me taking my advises in his professional and personal life. When Ceylinco Consolidated decided to set up an International education Institute they selected Mohan to manage the project where Mohan joined as the project manager for ICBT campus where he had to start from the scratch and being the first employee.
There after I have seen the hard work he put all by himself including setting up a small office in Colombo 3 to with the meager capital of nearly 20 million to develop as the best and largest private higher educational institute in Sri lank by the year 2014 achieving billions of revenue and developing assets.
Mohan invited to take up as the Dean of ICBT Campus in the year 2004 and I have taken up the position of Dean at that time and worked as the Dean for couple of years and during which time I have observed how Mohan was working hard with no support from his Board or superior. Mohan had to take decisions all by himself and execute himself all alone amidst of all the animosities and rivalries of his superior merely for the jealousy of his personal and professional life achievements.
Mohan’s achievement in taking ICBT campus to the top was cynosure of all eyes. He developed jealousy of his superiors who had no knowledge of the education business. I remember in the year 2005 Mohan was put into such an unethical pressure and tried to fix him for a wrong doing and he decided to leave ICBT but it was me who educated him to withstand it and advised the board and his superior the caliber of Mohan and it’s a crime if they make Mohan an unpleasant working environment and to refrain from doing so.
Thereafter Mohan with full control took off ICBT expanded locally and internationally to win many awards and accolades both for the institute and himself. I am so happy and proud that I was able to guide Mohan and save at times professionally and he was able to develop the best private education institute in Sri Lanka expanding its operation the Middlesex and also Mohan being honored by UKs best Universities as the Doctor of University and Honorary Follow which was the first time an Asian national has been bestowed.
As Mohan’s lecturer and mentor, I would like to place this note of recognizing his achievements and development of private higher education in Sri Lanka where by more than 35000 Sri Lankan students who have been deprived of local government degree education has been qualified with degrees from internationally recognized universities at an affordable fee while studying in Sri Lanka.
I wish Mohan all the best in his future career
Mr Satish Sharma
We introduced Edexcel HNds to Sri Lanka way back in the year 1998 and we continued our services until year 2008 until formally Sri Lankan office was set up to take the project on. By then we have passed out more than 15000 students with Edxcel HNDs and they students were professional qualified to work in the industry while they also gained tears credit exemption to follow degrees at British universities.
We then introduced SQA ( Scottish Qualification Authority ) from the Government of Scotland and presently there are nearly 2000 students are getting graduated every year.
My association with Dr. Mohan Pathirana has been from the year 2000 onwards and we have worked very closely with him to promote high quality, world-recognized British Education in Sri Lanka at an affordable fee.
I know from the inception how hard Dr. Mohan worked with dedication and honesty to bring up ICBT campus and the number one education institute in Sri Lanka and expanded the branch network to all part of Sri Lanka and not limited to Sri Lanka but also to Middle-east.
Is was his sheer dedication, determination and hard work that brought to ICBT campus as it is today and Dr. Mohan had to do this great job support with little or no support from his peers of superiors in the organization which I know very well as I have been visiting Sri Lanka and meeting him almost every month and for the last two decades seeing the development and success of ICBT Campus.
It is his leadership that brought ICBT Campus many accolades including best educational institute in Sri Lanka by the winning the National Business Excellence Awards conducted by National Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka for consecutive 4 years and also local and foreign awards including the repeated winning of best Edxecel Center in Sri Lanka.
We as international consultants know the ICBT board’s envy causing him to leave the organization which is a great mistake they made and after his departure, the quality and the delivery of ICBT is deteriorating and the British universities are not happy about the ICBT campus management and the capabilities of staff presently and the quality of academic delivery as there is no one who could replace Dr. Mohan Pathirana is his vacancy.Dr. Mohan was well recognized by the India by honoring him with Abdul Kalam honorary award for his contribution to Education industry in Sri Lanka after him leaving the ICBT Camps which shows the he is still respected internationally and locally I request Dr. Mohan to continue the good work that he has done over the last two decades and I will him all the success in future.
Frank Joseph Victor
When I learned, in my interaction with him, that he is an Engineering
Graduate of IIT, Kanpur, India, I was very proud of his achievements. His logical approach to developing strategies and solving problems stems from his technical academic background. Mohan is very professional in his dealing with contacts from the Education and Academic Sectors. I have had the opportunity to be present on many occasions at the ICBT Campuses and have seen at first hand the professional manner in which he has managed his teams – both academic and administrative. In the sphere of Academic Partnerships, I have had a very close working relationship with M P. During my tenure as the Regional Director of Study Group International and of Middlesex University, London, ICBT signed an Academic Partnerships with Study Group International and Middlesex University in the year 2002.
With Mohan Pathirana at ICBT, there were franchised programmes of BSc (Hons) IT, BBA and a Top-up MBA. Mohan also initiated the setting up of the Middlesex University Representative Office in Colombo, Sri Lanka which recruited nearly 100 students to study abroad at Middlesex University UK. I have had the opportunity of being actively involved in the planning, negotiations, agreeing and implementing Academic Partnerships with Mohan Pathirana and ICBT for student and faculty exchange from Sri Lanka to UK and vice versa. The success of these programmes in Sri Lanka has resulted in Mohan negotiating Partnerships for Campuses in the Gulf Region, especially in Middle-east Countries The success of ICBT’s student recruitment in the campuses in Sri Lanka and Overseas has been, to a large extent due to the strategies developed and implemented by Mohan Pathirana.
His Marketing Strategies and Plans have been very successful in providing his Academic Partners with the confidence in continuing to work with him to cement the Partnerships. The Partnerships and Marketing Strategies have been managed to such a successful level whereby over xxx students were enrolled in the programmes functioning under the Directorship of Mohan Pathirana. The consistent success that had been the hallmark of Mohan Pathirana’s Directorship has been recognized by Middlesex University and Cardiff Metropolitan University, who have awarded him with Honora Causa Degrees in 2014 and 2015.
Professor Jyoti Gupta
Dr. Mohan Pathirana of 9/1 Davidson Tower Havelock city Colombo 06, who has been a legend in the private higher education Industry in Sri Lanka having over 20 years’ experience as a higher education industry leader is known to me since 1998. I first got to know Mr. Mohan Pathirana at the time he was a young man following an MBA at Colombo University in the year 1998, when I was lecturing for the MBA batch of the University of Colombo on the subject of “Strategic Management”.
As a keen and energetic student of mine at the MBA programme, I noticed his leadership ability and hardworking attitude which is a vital competency in the management discipline. From what I can remember, at that time, he was working as an Engineer at Hayleys Engineering Company Ltd. which was a subsidiary of one of the largest conglomerates in Sri Lanka. According to my memory, Mohan graduated as an MBA with a Merit pass which only few students were able to achieve, even though he was the youngest student in the batch, as to my recollection. Mohan was a different kind of a person, well behaved, reliable and loyal. He had been friendly
with his fellow mates as well as with the lecturers and had been an effective and reliable go-getter. I clearly spotted Mohan’s talents and skills in management and his capabilities in managing organizations more than being an Engineer.
Even after completing the MBA, Mohan was regularly in touch with me taking my advice in his professional and personal life. I can remember it very well, when “Ceylinco Consolidated” decided to set up an International Education Institute, they selected Mohan to manage the project where Mohan joined them as the project manager of ICBT campus and I was well aware of the hardship he underwent as he had to start the organization from scratch where he had been the first employee of the organization. Thereafter, I was told about and I have seen the hard work he put in all by himself including setting up of a small office in Colombo 3 with the starting capital of nearly 20 million he had been able to develop this Institution to the level of one of the best and largest private higher educational institute in Sri Lanka where he had been able to achieving billions of revenue and developing assets during a very short spell of 2001-2014.
Mohan invited me to take up the position of Dean of ICBT Campus in the year 2002 and I took up that challenge in accepting the offer and holding the position of Dean during which time I have observed how hard Mohan has been working all alone without much support from his hierarchy and staff as all of them were new in to the field. Based on what I was told and what I could remember ,Mohan had to take decisions all by himself and execute the functions all alone amidst all the petty jealousies and rivalries which is common to any office or business environment as he had been performing enthusiastically in his personal and professional life. Mohan’s achievement in taking ICBT campus to the top in private education industry was the cynosure of all eyes at that time, which also was the starting point of jealousies from many of those in the field including insiders who had little knowledge in the education business at that time. I could remember in the year 2003 Mohan was at the center of a controversy where some accusations were levelled at him and he made a hasty decision to leave ICBT but it was I who convinced him to stay back to withstand the pressures and advised him as well as his colleagues and superiors about the personality of Mohan whom I knew very well and created a pleasant working environment for him to deliver his best thereafter. Thereafter, I was made to understand that Mohan was in full control of ICBT and expanded the operations both locally and internationally to win many awards and accolades both for the institute and for himself.
I am so happy and proud that I was able to guide Mohan and save him from many disasters at many a times in my professional capacity as a lecturer and as a professional colleague and he was able to develop the Institution he handled, the ICBT, to the level of the best private education institute in Sri Lanka expanding its operation in to the Middlesex collaboration. I was told that Mohan has been honored by a UK University and had been awarded the degree of the Doctor of Philosophy and had been enrolled as an Honorary Follow which was the first time an Asian national has been bestowed with. As Mohan’s lecturer and an adviser, I would like to place this note of recognition of his achievements which includes the development of private higher education in Sri Lanka where more than 30,000 Sri Lankan students who did not have the opportunity of obtaining degree education has been provided with degree qualifications from internationally recognized universities at an affordable fee, while carrying out the studies in Sri Lanka. I wish Mohan all the best in his future endeavors! I wish him success.