An entrepreneurial engineer with the Midas touch
It is almost three months, since my friend, Thakshan departed this world, at the age of 76 years leaving a permanent void in the hearts of everyone. His demise marks the end of an era of 40 years as a chartered mechanical engineer, mostly encompassing the coconut and agro-based industry in the small and medium enterprise sector.
His contribution as a hands-on engineering consultant in the spheres of prefeasibility and feasibility studies, diagnostic studies, rehabilitation of ailing industries, restructuring and privatization studies, technical audits, in-depth evaluations of technical assistance projects and design and implementation of ISO 9000 quality management systems had an immeasurable impact on the industry, enhancing the productivity, profitability and the efficiency of operations of every assignment he touched all over the world. In that sense, Thakshan can be more appropriately referred to as an entrepreneurial engineer with the Midas touch.
He was born in November 1941 into an aristocratic family of Rosmead Place, Colombo 7. His father was Professor D. A. Ranasinghe, the most sought Obstetrician and Gynaecologist of that era who later became the Chancellor of the Colombo University. His stepmother was Anne Ranasinghe, an internationally renowned Jewish-German born poet who passed away recently.
He had two brothers (Ananda and Nihal) and four sisters (Rohini, Kushlani, Shanti and Renuka) and his upbringing in a scholarly family environment gave him a formidable foundation. His three sons, Lohit, Ruan and Mevan are domiciled in the United States and Australia. His sister Kushlani and her husband Mahendra Amarasuriya had been a tower of strength to him at the final stages of his life.
Thakshan was privileged to receive a wholesome education from Ananda College, Colombo and later at Trinity College, Kandy. Thakshan was the only Trinitian who gained entrance to the Engineering Faculty in 1959. He was an athlete at Trinity establishing a pole vault record. He earned a B.Sc Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Ceylon in 1967.
His two publications on “Modern coconut management, ” compiled whilst he was at the FAO in 1999 and “Coconut Processing Technology Information Documents in the Asian Pacific Community” in 1980 as a UNIDO Consultant bear ample testimony to his expertise in the coconut industry. The pinnacle of his career was being appointed Senior Partner (since 1992) at the HAP Consultants, Denmark, overlooking the South Asian Region.
He was a Chartered Engineer, United Kingdom as well as a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, UK. He was also a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, UK (manufacturing group). He is also a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka. In addition, he had received the Membership of the Plastics and Rubber Institute, Sri Lanka.
His services were constantly sought by leading clients such as UNIDO, FAO, World Bank, ADB, Danida, GTZ, reputed conglomerates in Australia, Indonesia and Netherlands in addition to numerous public, private, and cooperative sectors in Sri Lanka.
Thakshan worked in South Asia, South East Asia, Pacific, Africa, Middle East and the Far East and had received commendations from countries such as Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Western Samoa, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Truk State of FSM and Yap State of FSM and Africa, which included Mozambique, Seychelles, Tanzania, Zanzibar.
Some industrial ventures in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam etc sought his intervention to handle critical engineering and production issues at the last stage of his life and his magnanimity in providing counsel without any professional fee has been a hallmark of his simplicity.
Thakshan rendered a yeoman service to the country by setting up an activated carbon and charcoal factory of Hayleys Group at Madampe in 1972 in his capacity as Factory Manager. He was a pioneer trained by a foreign collaborator in India on activated carbon technology.
Thakshan is credited with the invention of over 200 products in cottage industries and handicrafts in about 25 countries. These included edible products such as food nuts, young coconut water, copra (oil seed), oil milling, oil refining, copra cake, desiccated coconut, coconut milk and cream, sap, treacle, sugar, alcohol, vinegar etc and non–edible products such as animal feed, white and brown fibres, fibre products including twisted fibre for car seats, shell flour, charcoal, activated carbon..
Thakshan was a true friend and I enjoyed working with him for over a decade on World Bank and ADB funded projects. I was a regular visitor to his Kirulapona house when working on projects and we spent sleepless nights burning the midnight oil and enjoying the hilarious events he narrated.
I had the privilege of learning the rudiments of drafting project reports in precise form and in that sense, he was a mentor who greatly influenced my life. His hobby was dancing and he illustrated the finer steps, whenever we got bored of project issues at his home. He was so humble to provide accommodation and sumptuous meals to project experts whenever their services demanded their presence in Colombo. His voice was very manly and commanding, but his heart was absolutely soft. He was very cheerful, courageous and objective in his endeavors.
It is unfortunate that the last project we handled on the tuberous crop could not see the light of the day. It would be a gross injustice, if I do not mention his name for the professional inputs he disseminated on the sphere of value addition and packaging.
His death is an irreplaceable loss of an entrepreneurial engineer who was a colossus in the engineering fraternity.
May he attain the Supreme Bliss of Nirvana.