Our Team

Directors

With the right leadership comes the right values, which in turn resonates into success. At Impra, our board of directors possess decades of experience that go beyond simply producing superior quality tea.

Mr. Jayantha Karunaratne – Founder, Chairman and Managing Director

Mr. Karunaratne is the founder, Chairman and Managing Director of the Imperial Teas Group. His 30-plus years of experience in the tea trade began in 1977 when he served as a Tea Taster at a leading tea export company in Sri Lanka. Extensive travel has given him in depth knowledge of overseas markets and trading concepts and methodologies. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Colombo Tea Traders Association and is the Immediate Past President of the Tea Exporters’ Association. Mr. Karunaratne is also the Vice President of the National Chamber of Exporters of Sri Lanka. He is a Board Member of the Sri Lanka Tea Board and a former President of the Sri Lanka-Russia Business Council (SLRBC). He is also a member of the American Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka. In September 2007, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce appointed him as leader of the Trade & Investment Promotion Mission to Russia and the Ukraine. He was also a member of the Sri Lanka Team that conducted negotiations with Russia regarding the latter’s proposed accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Ms. Illanga Karunaratne – Director
Starting her career as a management trainee at a leading export company, Mrs. Karunaratne gained wide experience in Financial Accounting, Management Accounting, Auditing, Taxation, Budgetary Control and Financial Management. She joined the company as a Director in 1994. In recognition of her contribution towards empowering women in the export sector, she was named Runner Up at the Women Entrepreneurs Awards 2002 organized by the Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

Mr. Abhaya Gurusinghe – Director of Production
With a background in engineering, Mr. Gurusinghe rose to the position of Technical Manager at a public sector organisation and subsequently worked overseas at a leading company in the same field. Mr. Gurusinghe joined the Imperial Teas Group as Director of Production in 1994. He holds a Diploma in Civil Engineering from the University of Moratuwa and a Diploma in Business Management from the National Institute of Business Management of Sri Lanka.

Mr. Jalinda Karunaratne – Director
Mr. Jalinda Karunaratne is a past pupil of Ananda College. During his time in school he was appointed as a Senior Prefect and also served as the President of the Ananda College Music Circle in 2008. In addition to possessing musical talents, he also holds a Bachelor of Business and Commerce Degree majoring in Marketing and Management from Monash University, Australia.

He has over 10 years of tea tasting experience, whilst also having successfully completed an Executive Tea Training Programme at The Mel’s Tea Academy.

Mr. Jalinda Karunaratne currently serves on the company’s main board simultaneously also serving on the boards of Premier Packaging (Pvt) Ltd and Imperial Spices (Pvt) Ltd. He is directly engaged in Tea and Marketing for the company.

He is also a member of National chamber of commerce.

Mr. Jeewaka Karunaratne – Director

Mr. Jeewaka Karunaratne graduated from Monash University in 2008 with a Bachelor of Business with a major in Accounting and minor in Statistics and Risk Management and has recently completed an executive MSc in Finance.

Mr. Jeewaka Karunaratne commenced his career at Tea Broker Company as a Management Trainee. He then developed his skills further in terms of tea tasting and joined the family business in January 2009. Upon gaining extensive knowledge in all areas of the business he was appointed to lead various projects within the company.

Jeewaka’s current role in the company is involved with Strategic Planning. Some projects initiated by him are; introduction of an ERP solution for order processing, launching the company’s flagship brand IMPRA in Australia and New Zealand, conducting of internal audits for systems and processes, Iced tea manufacturing and the Implementation of an HR manual.

 

Marketing & Product development

At Impra Tea, we go beyond simply distributing our products to the world; strategic brand positioning and constantly learning what our consumers want helps us deliver quality teas to suit a wide range of palettes, the world over.