Ashok Pathirage, who burst into Sri Lanka’s corporate scene by pioneering Softlogic, and took over Asha Central Hospital this week, has come a long way since the 1990’s by taking on the likes of business tycoon Harry Jayawardena and successfully beating him at his own game.
“I believe that we have the capacity to do what we have set out to do and I am here to make some noise,” the 43-year-old business tycoon declared in a telephone interview with The Sunday Times FT, fresh after sealing his latest deal.
The Chairman and Managing Director of Softlogic who loves Sri Lankan rice and curry, has added 15 companies in the past 16 years and consolidated them under Softlogic Holdings (Pvt) Ltd. He has employed over 700 people within its offices in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Pakistan and Australia. Pathirage, an old Anandian, is now eying acquisitions in either telecommunications, banking or in the financial services industry.
In 1991 he quit his first job at John Keells Holdings (JKH) after nine years and with a capital of Rs. 1 million and eight employees started Softlogic aimed at catering to local software requirements. “Now the Softlogic Group is a Rs.7 billion turnover entity without taking the Asiri Hospitals into account,” he said.
Pathirage, a cricketer during his school days has now switched to the rich man’s sport - golf, saying his passion for software started with his job at JKH where he joined as a trainee at the company's Management Information Systems (MIS) department way back in 1983. “At the time I saw a lot of potential for software development and there was a need for a company such as ours in the country, especially when software was catching up. We approached the markets in a focused manner. In the first year we had about Rs.6 million turnover,” he said, adding that Softlogic really took off when it got the DELL computer distributing agency 12 years ago.
In 1993 Pathirage, originally from Galle, passed another milestone when he tied the knot and settled down in Battaramulla. The couple have a 13 year old son.
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