From Yali
[Insert Yalindrani's actual message here. Write it as long as it needs to be: this is a letter, not a caption.]
— Yalindrani
Hemachandra
A Legacy Still Being Written
Chandima Chulendra Hemachandra
- Husband.
- Father.
- Leader.
- Mentor.
Celebrating a life of purpose, perseverance and family.
Chapter One
The Man Behind the Name
Long before the titles, boardrooms and responsibilities, there was simply Chandima.
[Family to provide childhood story: where he was born, the house he grew up in, the town, the sounds of it.]
[Insert story about Chandima's parents and upbringing: who raised him, what they did, what they expected of him.]
[Family to describe the young Chandima: what he was like as a boy, what he was curious about, what he was stubborn about.]
[Family to describe the turn towards technology: the first machine, the first problem he could not leave alone, the decision to go to the United Kingdom.]
Chapter Two
A Life in Motion
Across countries, industries and decades, one constant remained: the willingness to learn, build and lead.
-
United Kingdom
1986 – 1987
Systems Analyst
British Hartford-Fairmount Engineering
The beginning. A young engineer's first professional footing in systems and technology, in an industrial engineering business a long way from home. Everything that followed was built on this ground.
[Insert photograph from the United Kingdom years] -
Sri Lanka
1990 – 2000
Chief Manager, ICT
Commercial Bank of Ceylon
A decade inside one institution, through the years in which banking and computing quietly became the same subject. This is the period in which he became a banking-technology leader rather than a technologist who happened to work in a bank.
[Insert photograph from the Commercial Bank years] -
Sri Lanka
2000 – 2006
Deputy General Manager, Head of ICT & Banking Operations, CIO
Hatton National Bank
The widening. Responsibility moved past the technology function and into banking operations themselves: not only how the systems worked, but how the bank worked.
[Insert photograph from the Hatton National Bank years] -
Kenya Sri Lanka → Kenya
2006 – 2009
Head of ICT, Chief Information Officer
CfC Stanbic Bank
Nairobi, and CfC Stanbic Bank: the East African headquarters of Standard Bank Africa. A different country, a different market and a different banking culture. His career stopped being national and became international.
[Insert photograph from the Kenya years] -
Sri Lanka
2009 – 2011
Chief Information Officer
Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation
Home again, and across the aisle from banking into insurance, at the oldest and one of the largest insurance providers in Sri Lanka. The same discipline of large, regulated, unforgiving systems, applied to a different industry.
[Insert photograph from the Sri Lanka Insurance years] -
Malaysia
2011 – Present
Chief Technology Officer
Scicom (MSC) Berhad
Kuala Lumpur. He joined on 20 January 2011, and it became the longest chapter of the story so far. More than fifteen years as Chief Technology Officer, carrying responsibility for technologically complex work at scale, with the accumulated judgement of a career spent across four countries behind every decision.
15+ years of technology leadership
[Insert photograph from the Scicom years]
Four Countries
The path a career takes when curiosity outlasts comfort.
But a man's résumé can only tell you where he worked.
It cannot tell you who he was when he came home.
Chapter Three · The Husband
Yalindrani
Beside every chapter.
[Insert photograph of Chandima and Yalindrani together]
[Insert photograph]
How they met
[How they met]
[Wedding photograph]
The wedding
[Family to describe the day]
[Early family photograph]
The early years
[Family to describe the first home, the first move, the early family]
[Insert photograph]
A favourite memory
[A favourite memory]
Chapter Four · The Father
Through His Children's Eyes
There are versions of a father the rest of the world never gets to meet.
[Insert photograph of Chandima with Chaundev]
[Insert a second photograph, from another year]
Chaundev
Dad…
[Chaundev's birthday message to his father]
- A memory I will always carry
- [A memory I will always carry]
- Something Dad taught me
- [Something Dad taught me]
- Something I never say enough
- [Something I never say enough]
[Insert photograph of Chandima with Lashlan]
[Insert a second photograph, from another year]
Lashlan
Dad…
[Lashlan's birthday message to his father]
- A memory I will always carry
- [A memory I will always carry]
- Something Dad taught me
- [Something Dad taught me]
- Something I never say enough
- [Something I never say enough]
[Insert photograph of Chandima with Jvanash]
[Insert a second photograph, from another year]
Jvanash
Dad…
[Jvanash's birthday message to his father]
- A memory I will always carry
- [A memory I will always carry]
- Something Dad taught me
- [Something Dad taught me]
- Something I never say enough
- [Something I never say enough]
Chapter Five
The Hemachandras
Careers build reputations. Families build lives.
The ordinary photographs matter most here: kitchens, airports, back seats, ordinary Sundays. A life is not a sequence of ceremonies.
[Insert a full-width family photograph]
[Insert an ordinary day at home]
[Insert a photograph from a family trip]
[Insert a celebration]
[Insert a candid photograph]
[Insert a milestone photograph]
Chapter Six
Voices
A life looks different depending on where you stood beside it.
[Actual quotation, in their own words]
[Actual quotation, in their own words]
[Actual quotation, in their own words]
[Actual quotation, in their own words]
More voices can be added at any time. Each needs a name, how they know Chandima, their own words, and a photograph if they have one. Voice notes and short films can sit here too.
Chapter Seven
What He Built
Not a second telling of the timeline. The shape of a professional life read across it, rather than along it.
- 01
Technology
Decades spent building and modernising complex technology environments, from the systems floor to the architecture of whole institutions.
- 02
Leadership
A progression out of technical roles and into Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer and board-level responsibility.
- 03
Financial Services
Extensive experience across banking and insurance technology: Commercial Bank of Ceylon, Hatton National Bank, CfC Stanbic Bank, Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation.
- 04
Across Borders
Professional experience spanning the United Kingdom, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Malaysia: four markets that do not do business the same way.
- 05
Governance
Responsibility reaching past technology and into the boardroom: a Board Director of National Savings Bank, Sri Lanka, and a former member of its Board Integrated Risk Management Committee.
- 06
The Next Generation
[Insert stories from people Chandima has trained, mentored or influenced.]
Only what the record supports. No figures for revenue, headcount, customers or projects appear anywhere on this site unless the family supplies them from a verified source.
Chapter Eight
The Things That Define a Man
Collected from the people who have heard them most often.
A principle he lives by
[Principle from Chandima]
01The advice he gives his children
[Advice frequently given to his children]
02How he leads
[Leadership philosophy]
03What family means in this house
[Family value]
04The line everyone can finish for him
[Funny saying the family always hears]
05Chapter Nine
The Chandima We Know
Told with affection, and without his permission.
-
The habit everyone knows
[Story]
-
The story he always tells
[Story]
-
Dad's predictable answer
[Story]
-
His favourite thing
[Story]
-
The family argument he will never concede
[Story]
-
Something unexpectedly funny about him
[Story]
Chapter Ten
A Life in Frames
Old photographs are left as they are. Their proportions, their grain and their colour are part of the record.
The archive is ready and waiting for photographs. Put the image
files into public/images/, then list each one in
src/data/content.ts with a caption, a year and its
tags. They will appear here in order, under the right filters,
and open full screen.
Chapter Eleven
Time changes the photograph. Some things it doesn't touch.
[Young Chandima]
[Chandima today]
[The young couple]
[Chandima and Yali today]
[Young father]
[The family today]
[Early career]
[Chief Technology Officer]
Legacy
Legacy is not a title.
It is what remains in other people because you were there.
[Yalindrani]
[Children]
[Family]
[Friends]
[Colleagues]
To Dad
[Insert the collective message from his children and family. Write it together. Take your time.]
Chaundev · Lashlan · Jvanash
Happy Birthday
Chandima
For everything you have built.
For everything you have taught us.
For every chapter still ahead.
With love,
Your family.
4 October 1963