Ken Vijayakumar, a versatile business, and People’s professional, currently holding the position of Deputy General Manager – Human Resources, Administration, Purchasing and Sustainability at A. Baur & Company (Pvt.) Ltd was elected as President of CIPM Sri Lanka, the Nation’s leader in human resource management, at its Annual General Meeting held recently.  

Prior to his appointment as the President of CIPM Sri Lanka, he held office as the Vice President in the preceding year and serving for 7 years in the CIPM Executive Council including as the Honorary Secretary an Honorary Treasurer in his tenure at CIPM, making him the ideal choice to navigate CIPM in these challenging times.

Vijayakumar counts over 30 years of experience in the field of human resource management and general management with prestigious appointments at Lankem (Ceylon) Ltd, Watawala Plantations, MAS Holdings, Keells Plantations, Lanka Equities, Brandix, WNS/AVIA, Delmege Forsyth, and Waters Edge Ltd. where he held managerial and senior managerial positions. He also held the position of Regional Head of HR for Malaysia at Good Hope Asia (Holdings), a diversified conglomerate.

“Developing HR professionals to be resilient to face any type of crises and challenges, spreading CIPM’s much acclaimed education courses to the neighboring countries and thereby opening a new avenue to infuse USD/foreign currency to the country, making representation to the Government of Sri Lanka to amend the labor laws to take advantage of the gig economy such as part time employment, multiple employment contracts, flexible work arrangements, and positioning HR professionals as partners for business while ensuring more C-suite/Boardroom representation are some of the key areas that I will be working on during my tenure” said Ken Vijayakumar – President CIPM Sri Lanka.      

His expertise spans multiple industries with exposure to Plantations, Apparel Manufacturing, Business Process Outsourcing/Knowledge Process Outsourcing, Palm Oil Refineries, Hospitality and FMCG.

Vijayakumar is also a Senior faculty member of CIPM Sri Lanka since 2008. He has a Bachelor of Arts qualification from the University of Peradeniya and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the Post Graduate Institute of Management (PIM) of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and holds membership in CIPM Sri Lanka and the Malaysian Institute of Human Resource Management (MIHRM).

With all plans finalized to introduce CIPM’s study programmes in Bangladesh, the launching ceremony to sign the MoU between Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) & BSHRM Institution of Professional Development Limited (BIPD) took place on 18^th July 2022 at 5.30 p.m. in the Members Lounge of CIPM. This was red-letter day for CIPM as in its long history of more than 60 years. It was the 1^st time that CIPM professional study programme were been introduced to a foreign country.  

This event was a sequel to the initial moves in 2021 to introduce our Chartered Qualification in HRM to Bangladesh so as to enable the HR fraternity in that country to benefit by embarking on a recognized professional qualification in HRM. 

This partnership between CIPM & BIPD was approved by the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development UK (CIPD, UK) which earlier had accredited CIPM’s Chartered Qualification and a recognized qualification by CIPD, UK.  

The ceremony to launch this partnership was attended by Mr Mohammad Mashequr Rahman Khan – Chairman, (BIPD), Mr Mohammad Nazrul Islam – Managing Director & CEO (BIPD), & Mr Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed – Vice-Chairman & Director (BIPD). On behalf of CIPM Mr Jayantha Amarasinghe – President CIPM, Imm: Past President & Current APFHRM President – Mr Dhammika Fernando, Vice President – Mr Ken Vijayakumar, Members of the CIPM Executive Council as well as the CEO of CIPM, Senior staff members and some faculty members participated in this event. 

The event was very successful with much enthusiasm from both CIPM & BSHRM. 

CIPM takes great pride in announcing the opening of its professional study centre in Gampaha on 4th July 2022. The ceremonial opening took place under the distinguished patronage of CIPM President Mr. Jayantha Amarasinghe at the auspicious time of  10.00 am. The Secretary of the Divisional Secretariat Gampaha Ms. K.A.S.L. Gunathilaka graced the occasion as a special guest. The Chairman of Infrastructure Development of CIPM Col Saman Jayawickrema, the CEO of CIPM Mr.Chris Obeyesekere, Director of Professional Affairs Mr.G.Weerathunga, Director Operations Ms.Himali Dasanayake, Senior Officers, staff of CIPM, and many well-wishers were present at the event.

With this event, CIPM introduced to the public, its 4th Professional Study centre in principal towns. This no doubt will be a wonderful opportunity for the students in the Gampaha District, HR Practitioners, Line managers and others in multiple disciplines of management to embark on professional HR studies which will enable them to become HR professionals.

President CIPM In his address mentioned that CIPM is sensitive to the needs in the professional development of HRM in Sri Lanka which will upgrade HR Practitioners,  and create acceptable standards to enhance the professional quality of the HRM fraternity in our country. This in turn will position HRM strategically for the benefit of all industries and organisations across the country. He further added that CIPM is and will continue to work towards achieving its vision whereby the institute will be fulfilling the expectations of the powers vested in it by the Act of Incorporation No.24 of 1976 and amendment Act No.31 of 2018 which conferred Chartered status to the institute.