Governance

Hariharan is the Deputy Chairman of Goodhope Asia Holdings Ltd and was appointed Chief Executive Officer effective 1st November 2017. He was appointed to the Board on 28th May 2012 and is responsible for the strategic direction of the business operations, including oversight of the Company’s sustainability strategy. He has over 20 years of experience in commodity trading in the international markets.

Presently, he is the Chairman of Bukit Darah PLC (BDPLC), Deputy Chairman of Carson Cumberbatch PLC (CCPLC) and some of their subsidiary companies. He is currently the Chairman of Express Newspapers (Ceylon) Ltd.

Presently he holds concurrent appointments as the Vice Chairman of Ceylon Beverage Holdings PLC and Vice Chairman of Lion Brewery (Ceylon) PLC. He has also been a Director of Sri Krishna Corporation Ltd.

Hariharan graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Madras, India.

Aneesh leads the Group’s Corporate Strategy, Finance, and Business Development activities while also being part of the Group Executive Committee. Before joining Goodhope in 2016, he was the Managing Director and Head of Commodity Traders & Agribusiness at Standard Chartered Bank. 

In his 20-year banking career, he worked in Corporate & Investment Banking in India, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. He started his career with General Electric before moving into the Banking sector in 1996.

He is a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Satish was appointed Executive Director of Goodhope Asia Holdings Ltd in 2018 and has since been steering their businesses in Malaysia and Indonesia towards building their competitive strength in the palm oil industry through investments in sustainability.

Before his appointment in Goodhope Asia Holdings, Satish was a Director at Creador, a South-East Asian Private Equity fund where he led the business turnaround of Asiamet Education Group Bhd. a higher education business in Malaysia. He also led the business diligence on Creador’s buyout of the D’Apotic pharmacy chain in Malaysia.

Previously, he was a consultant at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in New York, where he specialized in developing and implementing turnaround strategies for clients in the financial services, consumer, and healthcare space. Early in his career, he worked on the Structured Credit desks at Barclays Capital and BNP Paribas in London, where he traded Mortgage-Backed and Asset-Backed Securities.

Satish is a Chartered Financial Analyst, and has an undergraduate degree in Engineering, Economics and Management from Oxford University. He holds an MBA with honors from Columbia Business School.

Sharada has been with Goodhope Asia Holdings Ltd for over a decade. She joined the business after obtaining her MBA from IMD in Switzerland. At Goodhope, she focuses on the Human Resources function and closely links it to her role in Corporate Strategy. She believes the ultimate success of a company comes from its people. She is a member of the Executive Committee and works with senior management to make key strategic decisions.

Before joining Goodhope, Sharada worked as an economist and commodities strategist at BNP Paribas in London, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Beyond Goodhope, Sharada is a mother of three children, and passionate about education, especially in neurodiversity. Her social service in Singapore revolves primarily around this area of education. She is also a trustee of an education-focused trust that brings research-based alternative learning methods to improve self-confidence and raise the academic capabilities of learners. 

Muthukumaran Murugiah joined the Goodhope Group in 2019. He leads the Engineering Department, both upstream and downstream while managing all engineering projects of the Group. He drives initiatives to improve operational efficiencies, optimize Engineering processes, and introduces engineering best practices across the Group toward achieving desired outcomes to support corporate goals.

Prior to joining Goodhope, he was the Head of Engineering for New Britain Palm Oil (Sime Darby Plantations) in Papua New Guinea. In his 18-year plantation career, he has worked in Sime Darby Plantations, New Britain Palm Oil LTD, and Cargill Temasik Plantations. He has also worked in the plastic industry, food processing, and solvent extraction industry.

He has 23 years of experience in engineering including 20 years in the plantations industry. Muthukumaran graduated with a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering Degree from the University of Science, Malaysia.

lshan has at least thirty years of experience in HR and business at the Board and senior management level. 

Before Goodhope, he held the positions of Global Chief People Officer and Executive VP at Brandix Group. He continues as Board Director – of Brandix Corporate Campus and a Member of the Brandix Ombuds Office.

Before Brandix, he held Management & Director HR positions overlooking Regional & Global HR in several multi-national companies such as Virtusa, DHL, including the start-up team of Sri Lanka’s first private TV & Radio stations with Singapore Telecom. His Private & Public Sector roles included Executive Director & Board Advisor in several organizations, including the holding company of the Hilton hotels, the Urban Development Authority of the Government, the National Youth Corps, and the National Committee for Vocational & Technical Skills Development of the Prime Minister’s Office. 

He is the immediate past President of the Association of HR Professionals of Sri Lanka, and recognized by several international accolades for his contribution to the field of HR.

He holds a PhD, MBA, and post-graduate HR qualification, is a Fellow of the CIM, and is an ICF Certified Professional Coach. He has an Executive MBA from Global U21 consisting of the top 26 global universities.

For the past few years, Piyush has led three businesses operating in the Agri-value chain, consumer staples and the value-added processed food products space. In all these businesses, Piyush has driven the transformational growth agenda to reach the full potential of the business. In each of these businesses, he has also been able to secure global investments ranging in value from 50 – 150 million USD. 

Over a 23 year career span, Piyush has spent almost seven years of that time in the operations space, working in supply chain, procurement, projects, and plant management. He has spent considerable time in sales, business development and strategy functions. In the last decade he has spent managing P&L and large teams, with the last few years being CEOs of various businesses. He has wide ranging experience as a transformation leader for businesses across consumer, food service and B2B channels. 

Piyush has worked with organizations like Coca-Cola and Dabur apart from Cargill and McCain. He has also been a member of CII Food Processing Committee and FMCG committee, apart from being on various government panels e.g., NITI Ayog advisory team on Farm to Fork Strategy. In 2023, he founded Crescendo Consulting, which works in the space of turn-around and scale-up of the Agri and Food businesses. 

Piyush holds a Post-Graduate in Business from IIM, Mumbai, and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. He is passionate about sustainability and strongly espouses practices that will help the world get better as a living space for our future generations.

Sanjaya Upasena is the Chief Operating Officer of the Oil Palm Plantations Business Segment in Indonesia. He is responsible for managing the oil palm plantations and its associated operating units in Indonesia.

He joined Carson Cumberbatch PLC in 1999 as a Sector Accountant. Before his current role, he functioned as the Deputy Head of Operations, Director of Sustainability, General Manager of Plantation Operations, and the Regional Financial Controller for the Plantations Sector.

He is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, a Fellow Member of the Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), United Kingdom, and a Member of the Chartered Global Management Accountants (CGMA).

Saliya Rodrigo is a Director on the Boards of Palm Oil Plantation companies of the Goodhope Asia Holdings Limited Group. (GAHL Group). He is the Head of Finance of the Oil Palm Plantation Segment of GAHL Group and has been with the Group for over 17 years. His role as Head of Finance includes managing the Operational Finance, Treasury, Budgeting, Performance Monitoring, systems and controls of the Oil Palm Plantation Segment.

He started his career with SJMS Associates affiliated with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in 2000 and in 2003 he joined Brandix Intimate Apparel the largest apparel exporter in Sri Lanka.

He holds a Special Degree in Accountancy and Financial Management (Second Class Upper Division) from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka and he is a Fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and Associate member of the Institute of Chartered Management Accountants of Sri Lanka.

ACMA, CGMA

Amjad is the Director overseeing the procurement function. He leads the sourcing of third-party crops for the upstream business and functions as Head of Business Services for the Goodhope Group.

He started his career as an External Auditor at KPMG Sri Lanka in 2000. In 2003, Amjad joined Carson’s Management Services (Pvt) Ltd as an Assistant Accountant in the Plantation Sector and subsequently in 2006 moved to the upstream segment as a Management Accountant. He has 21 years of experience within the Group in various roles in Management Accounting, Project Management, Operational Finance, Process re-engineering, Business Process Management, IT systems implementation, and commercial functions.

Amjad is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) UK and an active member of the SLASSCOM FAO forum while representing Goodhope for various other initiatives. 

Rushdi joined the Goodhope Group in 2009 and oversees Group Strategic Finance, Treasury & Banking, Financial Reporting, and MIS. He currently serves on the board of Agro Harapan Lestari Private Limited.  

He is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants of the UK. He holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka.  He served in several committees of both these institutions in varying capacities. 

He started his career at Ernst & Young. He has over 35 years of work experience in finance, international marketing, supply chain operations, general management and assurance in blue chip conglomerates with global reach holding several senior positions.

Avneet is currently Premium Vegetable Oils CFO. 

Before joining PVO, he worked for IFFCO International, a UAE-based business conglomerate as CFO of their Malaysian group entities from April 2016 until March 2020. Then he was promoted to General Manager (BU Head) until December 2022. 

Avneet has worked around the globe with various multinational companies such as Ranbaxy, Olam, Petroleum Development Oman (Shell JV), and Polyplex.

He is a chartered accountant by profession and a high-caliber commercial and strategic-oriented finance professional with more than two decades of work experience across diverse trading and manufacturing sectors in Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey (and other European countries), Oman, and Ivory Coast (and other African countries) along various industry segments such as Pharmaceuticals, Petroleum- Oil & Gas, Plastics – Polymers PET Film and PET resins, Oleo chemicals, Specialty Oils and Fats and Personal Care products.

Avneet has a proven track record of making expedited value-added contributions to the organization’s growth through innovative business development, business modeling restructuring, system, and process improvements.

Carl Dagenhart joined the Goodhope Group in 2021 as Group Head of Sustainability. Before joining Goodhope Carl managed sustainability, stakeholder relations, and corporate communications at Sime Darby Plantation and IOI Group.

Over the 12-year working experience in the palm oil industry, Carl acquired significant on-the-ground exposure to a variety of sustainability challenges in Indonesia, Malaysia, Africa, and Europe, including valuable expertise in managing high-profile, land- and community-related disputes.

Carl started his career as a diplomat, after which he joined the World Bank Group where he spent 15 years managing various private sector development projects in Belarus, Russia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia (7 years), and the Solomon Islands.

He holds a master’s degree in international relations from MGIMO (Moscow State Institute of International Relations) and an MBA from San Francisco State University.

Kapila started his career in 2008 as a Project Executive in the Group CEO’s office at Brandix Lanka Ltd (the largest apparel exporter in Sri Lanka), and in 2015 rised to Manager – Projects focused on Technology and Transformation for the group.

In 2016, he moved to Phoenix Industries Ltd (Sri Lanka’s largest durable plastic manufacturer) as Head of ICT/BI with the Senior Management Team, where he was instrumental in kicking off the data journey for the company.

Kapila moved to Atlas Axillia Ltd in 2020 (the largest stationary manufacturer and distributor in Sri Lanka) under Hemas Holdings as the Head of Digital Transformation and was part of the EXCO. He led multiple teams including SAP, SFA (Sales Force Automation), and Cloud infrastructure. Kapila was instrumental in migrating the companies’ systems to the cloud, laying the data foundation for transformation, optimizing SAP functionality to fit the business, and re-implementing the sales force solution.

Kapila is also a former International Tennis Umpire who had officiated in multiple global tournaments such as the Australian Open, Wimbledon, Asian Games, Davis Cup, and Fed Cup. Kapila holds a Diploma in Computer Information Systems and a BSc in Business Administration/Finance from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, USA.