Upali Obeyesekere and Benito de Silva

By: Upali Obeyesekere – Founder, Josephian-Peterite Alumni Association

Subject: Josephian-Peterite Alumni Association – hereinafter referred to as "JPAA".

It has been brought to my notice that one or two past presidents of JPAA are going around saying that they are co-founders of the Josephian-Peterite Alumni Association. Taking ownership to what rightfully does not belong to you is both comical and unethical. As the founder of this organization it is my fiduciary duty to place on record the following facts. I leave it to the reader to make his or her own conclusion. 

It was Upali Obeyesekere, an Old Peterite who came up with the idea of starting an Ad-Hoc Committee of alumni from both St. Peter's College & St. Joseph's College domiciled in Toronto. Please read "About Us" on this site for more details. The thought turned into an action that brought about a result. The rest is history.

Initially, Upali had informal discussions with his close friend from back home Benito de Silva, an Old Josephian. The two deliberated and came to the conclusion that conceptually the timing was opportune for this project to get off the ground. Upali and Benito then set out to pick a cohesive team from the two schools to take the project to execution stage. This brought about the Ad-Hoc Committee that was formed in 1984 and functioned until 1992. 

The original founding Ad-Hoc Committee (1984-1992) comprised of Upali Obeyesekere (Facilitator/Founder), Benito de Silva (Co-Founder), Roy Alles (deceased), Sunimal Perera, Nihal Perera, Jimmy Raymond, Anton Perera (Treasurer), Hamzee Hameed, Laky Ranchigoda, Ray Lord and Lyall Bakelmun.

Members of the Ad-Hoc then decided to formalise JPAA and make it a member driven Not-For-Profit Corporation. Accordingly, in 1993 the organization was structured as a Not-For-Profit Organization and subsequently incorporated on May 8th, 1996. A set of by-laws and constitution of Josephian-Peterite Alumni Association was instituted by the 1993 Executive Committee headed by inaugural president Upali Obeyesekere.

Getting to the point, the founder of Josephian-Peterite Alumni Association is Upali Obeyesekere and Co-Founder is Benito de Silva. The stakeholders of the JPAA are the paid members who are in good standing of Josephian-Peterite Alumni Association.

 

List of Presidents of JPAA Canada

1993	Upali Obeyesekere	1994	Jimmy Raymond	1995	Anton Perera
1996	Robin Rode	1997	Hazmee Hameed	1998	Chris Cooke
1999	Bhanu Wijeyesekere	2000	Milan Gunawardena	2001	Nihal Jayawardene
2002	Lloyd Wijesinghe	2003	Rehan Goonetilleke	2004	Jeevan Pragasam
2005	Roderick Diaz	2006	Victor Santhiapillai	2007	Ranier De Lambert
2008	Valentine Balasingham	2009	Roshan Navaratnam	2010	Christy Joseph
2011	Christy Joseph	2012	Christy Joseph	2013	Upali Obeyesekere
2014	Upali Obeyesekere	2015	Upali Obeyesekere	2016	Christy Joseph