To be exceptional is to be prudent and zealous at the same time. To be successful is to be unique and vigorous in action. To be humane is to be honest and courageous in living. To be an exceptionally successful humane human is to be Dudley Sirisena. He is the wholehearted self-made entrepreneur and the Chairman of the world renowned Araliya Group of Companies. Born to a rural agrarian family, Dudley carved his way through to the elite ranks of Sri Lankan businessmen all the while carrying his humble upbringing and his heart of gold. Dudley Sirisena is a very practical man who has shared his fair share in this unforgiving society. Due to his social background he had to strive harder than anyone else to achieve social mobility. Dudley started his working career in a private company and then went through a plethora of jobs including working in a garage and operating a pump in a petrol station, all these experiences gained throughout his younger age made him versatile and gave him a range of practical and skillful knowledge which he later used to his advantage.
THE BIOGRAPHY
Dudley Sirisena is a man of honor, discipline and bravery. He inculcated these qualities during his time in the Sri Lankan Airforce which can be considered as the turning point of his life. Henceforth Dudley became passionate towards serving people whilst improving his socio economical background. He never forgot his identity as a farmer. When he started his legacy in the agriculture industry, he only had 25 sacks of rice. In his first rice mill he lacked funds even to build its boundary wall. But he never gave up he had a dream, he had motive and the necessary courage to achieve it. He worked in the scorching sun alongside his employees in the threshing floor, he swept and collected paddy threshing them and doing his best to provide high quality rice for the citizens of his motherland. His motives were pure and wholesome; long behold with his strategic planning, steadfast labor and blessings from his people, he transformed his dreams into reality. Today, Dudley Sirisena produces over 500,000 kg of rice feeding to the entire nation. Araliya Rice Mills in Polonnaruwa is the largest rice storage facility in Asia. Like the ancient kings of Sri Lanka who made the county self sufficient in rice, Dudley is striving to re-establish the faded title of Sri Lanka as the ‘Granary of Asia’. Dudley Sirisena being a self-made businessman understands the hardships that confronts the upcoming generation and the farming community of Sri Lanka. So, he is trying to impart his experience and knowledge of the industry to the younger generation of entrepreneurs and the farming community. Dudley respects and admires the hard-working farmers of our country as is grateful for their services which made him and his brand the number one in the industry. He has proposed an Agriculture Service Center to be established to address the concerns and aid the farming community to better their living conditions and to provide with consultant to newcomers in the agriculture industry.
Being the sole proprietor of 19 institutions around the nation, Dudley has always put his nation before anything else, and he has reinvested every penny that he earned back into his motherland. While the majority of Sri Lankan businessmen ventured out of the country, Dudley being the fearless and courageous man he is grew his business and shouldered to improve the economic growth of the country by reinvesting in Sri Lankan soil. Dudley Sirisena always believed that the main resource towards correlational development is the people. Consequently, he has created over 7000 employment opportunities through his business ventures across different fields and is looking for further extensions on this aspect in the future. ‘The ideal of a hotel is a home at a more advanced level’ which is the vision Dudley followed venturing into the hospitality and tourism industry. When Dudley sets his mind to something he not only achieves it, but he becomes the absolute best at what he does. He is the only individual who owns properties with a total of over 1000-star class rooms thanks to the world class group of hotels and villas namely, Hotel Sudu Araliya, Araliya Green Hills Hotel, Araliya Green City and Araliya Unawatuna Beach Hotel. With all these properties and the Araliya Lands company, the number one concern of Dudley Sirisena is conserving the environment and to achieve sustainable development by protecting the environment, he is truly passionate about environmental aspect of Sri Lankan business arena. He advocates to regulate environmental laws to safeguard the nature and fight against environmental degradation whilst presenting people with sustainable housing and business opportunities
The journey Dudley Sirisena took to be the best that the country has to offer was filled with challenges and setbacks but being resilient in nature Dudley never backed down, he kept on striving, grinding and carving his way into the success that he is today. Dudley Sirisena sits on top of everything that he partook in, he is across the board, from agriculture, leisure, tourism, engineering, construction, automotive industry to infrastructure development. Dudley is an amalgamation of all the fields that covers the entirety of a civilization. Dudley greatly values his corporate social responsibilities, he takes part in various social welfare projects where he provides financial, moral and in person expertise and support for the projects. He is everchanging, moving forward with the world, Dudley Sirisena being a practical Buddhist hails the power of mindfulness and fostering good thoughts in the mind in order to become successful and to help people achieve their potential. Giving a hand to the people in need and specially advising, mentoring and educating the younger generations to succeed in any field of their choice is the mindset of Dudley Sirisena to make the lives of the Sri Lankan public better in turn transforming Sri Lankan into a paradise of the modern world. The following quotation from Dudley Sirisena which was extracted from an interview with the ‘Business Today’ magazine further elucidate and captures the essence of the legacy of Dudley Sirisena, the humane businessman and a virtuous provider of knowledge, strength and integrity
“Through my commercial endeavors, I am supporting the farmer and the rural economy. By generating dollars, I am supporting the economy. I do not have a single account or assets overseas. I have invested everything in this country. Therefore, my earning are not mine alone, it is ours.”