Making waves at the event was Namalie Herath, Managing Partner of GroupM, who was the recipient of the Advertising Leader of the Year 2022 award.
An alumna of the University of Colombo, Namalie started her career at J. Walter Thompson Sri Lanka. She was instrumental in launching MEC in Sri Lanka, and then went on to head Wavemaker when the two entities, MEC and Maxus, were merged. She is now the managing partner for GroupM Sri Lanka which is the holding company of Mindshare, Wavemaker and Mediacom in Sri Lanka.
She has also been a board member of the International Advertising Association (IAA) and has led her team to win multiple awards, both international and local, along with many other accomplishments
Apart from her role as the Managing Partner, she is a family-oriented person. She describes herself as a “strong advocate of work-life balance,” which has allowed her to excel in all of her roles as a wife, mother, homemaker, and career professional.
Namalie remarks that winning this award came as a bit of a surprise to her, but that simply is her being modest as the contribution she has made to the industry and the difference she has made to the people with whom she has worked while building 2 large communication brands in Sri Lanka, MEC & Wavemaker, speaks for itself.
Joining the industry over 30 years ago, Namalie has grown with it over the years to be one of the most influential individuals at the forefront of Advertising. According to her the most important thing is to understand how market conditions are evolving and to be able to make brands the most relevant to evolving consumers. She was part of setting up new ventures and Launching the GroupM brands MEC and Wavemaker in Sri Lanka, and grew these organisations to be formidable brands in the market within a very short time span. She also stated “While I take pride in building these brands, building teams to meet the dynamics of the ecosystem is the accomplishment I am most proud of.”
She also goes on to say “People are the greatest asset an organisation has, particularly in the services industry. To harness the best in an individual a leader must be genuine in all his/her effort. The best of every person in the organisation comes out when you grow with them and work on a ground level with the team. With the changing corporate, economic and social environments we must be relevant and be adoptive to these changes. Change is the only constant phenomena. In such an environment leaders must be adoptive, continuously learn, and stay relevant. We need to have a mindset of continuous learning and encourage the teams to acquire knowledge throughout to upskill and stay relevant. GroupM is a university of learning, with continuous development of products and tools to be adopted to the changing market dynamics. A leader must have an open mind and develop a culture of inclusiveness and diversity.”
To conclude, Namalie hopes this award will inspire many to reach the heights they aspire to achieve, particularly the women who need to believe in themselves, who will endeavour to succeed in each and every role they play, to the best of their capacity and beyond.