Cinnamon Hospitality Academy

Previously Dean at Swiss Hotel Management Academy, she now serves as General Manager Tourism & Education at A. Baur & Company. A seasoned lecturer, well known for her academic leadership and dedication to student success.

Ramesh began his career at the Ceylon Hotel School in Sri Lanka before moving to the UK as a butler to the UK High Commissioner. With over 40 years of experience in the UK, Ramesh has extensive expertise in front office and food and beverage departments.

He has served as a General Manager in prestigious hotels such as Park Plaza Victoria and Riverbank. Before retiring, he was the General Manager at the Riverbank Hotel in London. Ramesh also worked as the opening General Manager at Jetwing Colombo 07. In 2020, he joined SHMA as an academic consultant and is currently the Head of Faculty at the Swiss Hotel Management Academy.

He has held senior roles globally, including as Director of York Hotel Management Services. A principal lecturer for the E&J Gallo Wine Training Programme, he has been a senior visiting lecturer for Advanced Wine Studies at the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism & Hotel Management for 26 years.

Chef Rajeewa Mendis entered the culinary industry after graduating from the Ceylon Hotel School. He began his journey as a kitchen helper at the Grand Oriental Hotel in Fort and later worked in renowned hotels in Dubai while completing his hotel education. With over 20 years of overseas experience in the Maldives, Cyprus, Thailand, and Bangladesh, Chef Rajeewa has a wealth of international culinary expertise. In Sri Lanka, he worked as an Executive Chef at Aitken Spence for 4 years and as a Resident Manager at the Amaya chain for another 4 years. He also served as Executive Chef cum Resident Manager at Royal Park Residence in Dhaka. Currently, he is the Culinary Head Chef at the Swiss Hotel Management Academy.

Dinendra graduated with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Sports Coaching from Deakin University, Australia. She started her career as a sports coach in 2005 and soon became a fitness coach. Later, she served as the National Men's A and Women's Team Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Sri Lankan cricket team. With 14 years of industry experience, Dinendra conducts personal training, online training, and group fitness classes. She is also a lecturer in Nutrition and the English Unit at the Swiss Hotel Management Academy.

Chalana is an École hôtelière de Lausanne graduate and the founder of RETRACE Hospitality, an advisory service for tourism investors, developers, operators, and government agencies in Sri Lanka and internationally. He advises on sustainable, high-value, low-impact tourism models across Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America.

Chalana has a background in hotel development across Europe, working with institutional investors and global brands like citizenM and YAYS. He is a certified Climate Reality Leader and advocates tourism as a catalyst for positive systems change. Currently, he is working as an academic consultant at the Swiss Hotel Management Academy.

Sasha started her career in the food and beverage industry as a barista at the Villa Hotel in Denmark and later launched her own business, Coffee First, in Denmark. With over 20 years of experience, she has a passion for specialty coffee. Sasha is also a qualified yoga instructor, having completed 500 hours RYT and trained with Dr. Miuru Jayaweera at Myrus School of Yoga, Sri Lanka, and Bodshere, Myrus School of Yoga. She came from Denmark as a specialty coffee consultant and currently lectures on food and beverage programme subjects at SHMA.

Neroy Marso has over 30 years of experience as a hotel General Manager, working in luxury international hotel chains such as Grange in central London. He was educated at the Emirates Academy of Hospitality's General Management Training Programme.

He worked for nearly 15 years with Grange Hotels in London and almost 10 years in prestigious hotels such as Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo, Earls Regency, and Victoria Golf and Country Resort as General Manager. He then became Director of Operations at Fairway Holdings (Pvt) Ltd. Currently, he is an academic consultant at SHMA, lecturing on food and beverage.