Education is a priceless privilege known to humans over decades and centuries. Contributing to this delightful journey of academically inclining a countless number of learners, the ICON Business School reaps to facilitate thriving futures for its students. This esteemed establishment is run by 4 successful individuals who endure creating a platform to coach students to success. Dilshad Jiffry, Dasun Mendis, Mohamed Fareen and Rakitha Jayatunge; the 4 Promoters of ICON Business School. These 4 individuals share their success stories and their insights to progress the future of the institute.
Dilshad Jiffry is an MBA holder from PIM, stands successful amidst the Consultants for Finance and Management in the Asian region. He possesses 18 years of lecturing experience working in outstanding finance areas like ACCA (UK), CIMA(UK), ICPA (Ireland), ABE (UK), CMA (Sri Lanka), ICSA (UK), and CPA (Sri Lanka). He also promotes business schools for ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) moulding students to achieve Sri Lankan and World Prizes within a year. With a list of high-class professionals as his former protégés over the years, he has worked in Malaysia, India, Maldives, Vietnam, and Indonesia, moulding students to find the right balance between traditional approaches and modern practices. In turn, Dilshad concentrates his expertise to help students, nourishing their knowledge on innovation within the 21st century.
Dilshad further goes on to discuss his belief that “an educator is a powerful role model”, and how he finds it rewarding to incorporate holistic changes in his teaching procedures to enlighten the best of his students, which further motivates him to continue his job prudently.
Retrospectively, Dilshad highlights the commencement of ICON by a team of ACCA tutors, with a mutual objective to deliver “high quality learning support to the students following ACCA to pursue their aspirations of becoming top professionals in the finance field”. Catering to the student’s needs to pursue their professional dreams in ACCA, ICON stands as a pioneer in the field of Accounting and Finance. Dilshad proudly mentions the victorious record of producing the highest number of ACCA prize winners, comprising 3 world prize winners, over 45 Sri Lankan prize winners, 6 ACCA Top Affiliates and over 100 ACCA affiliates since its inception. ICON is certified as a GOLD Approved Learning Partner in 2018, Approved Employer, and Approved Computer Based Examination Centre for ACCA, making ICON a leader in Sri Lanka’s ACCA market.
Dasun Mendis currently holds the position of General Manager – Finance of the Food Cluster at Ceylon Biscuits Limited (CBL) Group. He has over 13 years of corporate experience working in different places like Hemas Holdings PLC and KPMG Sri Lanka, functioning under various demanding capacities in the finance market. Alongside being a lecturer of ICON Business School (Pvt) Ltd, he is also an active lecturer of Infinity Space Business School (Pvt) Ltd. Both of these schools are leading entities where Dasun imparts in financial reporting and financial management subjects His 12 years of hard dedication to cater to student’s academic journeys has earned him 16 national prizes and a world prize, in the respective fields.
As far as his academic journey is concerned, Dasun acquired First Class Honours for his BSc – Finance (Special Degree) from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and was ranked as the batch top in the degree program with 2 gold medals. He completed the Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. He is also a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants of UK (FCCA), Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ACA), and Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments of UK (MCSI). Furthermore, was triumphant in earning 5 Sri Lankan prizes for his ACCA qualification, where he was awarded as Sri Lanka’s most outstanding ACCA Affiliate.
When questioned on the thriving capabilities of ICON amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Dasun emphasized the online learning methods incorporating a world-class, advanced Learning Management System (LMS). Additionally, the supportive team of ICON constantly guides students to learn and access study material at any place and time, promoting a deeper learning experience. “Designed with quick, easy individualized learning and feedback systems, flexible grading schemes and sophisticated dashboards that deliver real-time learning progress, the LMS empowers lecturers to fast-track the creation and delivery of innovative learning experiences to support student engagement and course completion” Dasun adds when discussing the flexible measures taken to cater students’ needs unaffected by the pandemic. He further adds how helpful this is to lecturers to use malleable measures to boost student learning.
Rakitha Jayatunge possesses a Bachelor of Laws Degree from the University of Colombo and a BSc (Hons.) in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University. He is also an MBA holder, a Merit Pass from the University of West London and a First-Class Honours candidate at the Sri Lanka Law College, who was called to the Bar as an Attorney-at-Law in 2008.
Rakitha excels in his career with a higher academic and professional qualification profile. Serving as an Attorney-at-Law at the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka with a specialty in Tax Law, Company Law, Contract Law, Intellectual Property Law, and Commercial Law for more than 12 years, Rakitha also holds the capacity as a Legal Consultant at Chambers Colombo Law Firm, Colombo 07. Being a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in the UK (ACCA), he is also an approved council member of the Members Network Panel of ACCA Sri Lanka. Furthermore, he is a member of the Tax Committee of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka.
Whilst being a visiting lecturer for Company Law of the Bachelor of Laws Degree Programs offered by the University of London, Staffordshire University the UK, and the University of the West of England, Rakitha serves as a Director at ICON Business School and a former Director of Transfer Pricing attached to Jayasinghe & Co. (Chartered Accountants affiliated to Russell Bedford International).
Rakitha goes on to discuss the future for ICON is to be “a globally renowned international business school that delivers excellence by producing talent that will contribute to the “Future of Work”. With the hope to create opportunities for students, staff, and partnering entities, ICON focuses on revolutionizing the excellence of education by expanding internationally and guiding the academic hierarchy of emerging leaders.
Finally, M.S.M Fareen has been a full-time lecturer in Accounting and Auditing for more than 7 years, imparting wisdom for ACCA, CIMA, and CA Sri Lanka programs. For CA programs, Fareen is a registered lecturer for Reporting, Costing & Auditing Subjects. Being a degree holder in Management from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, he also excelled in ACCA, receiving plenty of awards in the respective field. His expertise made him opportune to lecture ACCA programs in Sri Lanka, India (Kerala and Bangalore), and the Maldives.
Fareen has been a consultant both locally and internationally and functioned as a senior auditor at Ernst & Young for about 3 years. This has helped him enhance his skills in judgmental and practical speaking, modifying academic content to cater to students of different levels and capacities. Fareen is currently a Senior Lecturer at ICON Business School, guiding Sri Lankan and overseas students through their ACCA qualifications.
According to Fareen, ICON stands out from other institutions as they promote professional cultures and value systems honing new generations. They proliferate globally accredited qualified professionals who are ready to take over careers. In ICON, students are not only privileged to choose from a range of international professional qualifications but are also guided to advance in soft skills, analytical proficiencies, and technological competencies. Holding a strong reputation in the professional education community in Sri Lanka, ICON students are provided the best professionals and experts in the industry, guiding them through their journey to reach academic excellence.