PONLHeritage3 - Anton Ratnayake

We have received the very sad news that our former colleague, Anton Ratnayake, passed away on Friday 20 September 2024. Anton will have been known to many, his career with the company starting in 1973 and running through to 2000. His final position with P&O Nedlloyd was Chief Information Officer (CIO).

Anton started with OCL in 1973 as Senior Deputy General Manager with responsibilities including systems and software development and telecommunications. In that role he also started his involvement with management as well as technical training programmes. In 1981, with OCL then P&O Containers, Anton was promoted to Group General Manager in 1981 and in 1997, following the merger with Nedlloyd Lines, to CIO. One of his last responsibilities with P&O Nedlloyd was the leadership of the company's preparations for Y2K.

When Alan Bott OBE took on the editing of the book that was to become British Box Business - A History of OCL, Anton was one of the people that Alan approached to help with the content. The result was Appendix 7 on Computer Systems and Documentation which was co-written by Anton and Michael Read.

UPDATE

The details for the Memorial Service to celebrate the life of Anton Ratnayake are now available:

Monday 11 November at 12.30pm at St Mary the Virgin Church, 67-57 Churchgate, Cheshunt, Waltham Cross EN8 9NH.
There are to be no flowers by request of the family but donations to St. Helena Hospice in Colchester will be welcome.

Belinda McCormack

SCARA Membership Secretary

08/10/2024

Anton's interest in people development included running the Junior Management Workshop programme. Many young managers across the company (not just CTD/ITD) participated in that initiative (the picture on the left shows one of the 'JMW' course groups that Anton personally led, and he is pictured second from the right in the front row).

Anton was a regular attendee at the annual SCARA reunions in London. He unfortunately missed the lunch in 2023 because of another commitment but he was with us in November 2022 (in the photo on the right Anton is pictured at that reunion with former colleagues and SCARA members Stan Chalk and Rob Milton).

Anton's LinkedIn entry is very revealing as to the scope and scale of his career and interests outside of OCL, P&O Containers and P&O Nedlloyd. The summary includes:

Anton Ratnayake CMgr CCMI

AMP. &. MCR at Harvard Business School, BSc (Economics)

Retired C.E.O. AR Associates.
Retired Director/Chair C.N.S.,
Former Global Advisory Board Member, Nihilent Technologies India.,
Retired Director ROL(UK)
Past Branch President CMI Suffolk & North Essex,(UK).
Retired Deputy Chairman Bestee & Kretser
Retired Non Exec Director Momentum ICT.
Former Head of Management Services OCL UK.
Former General Secretary ICUA Europe.
Former visiting lecturer Cambridge Academy UK on Business & I.T strategies (1982-2002)
Freeman and Liveryman City of London
Member Royal Overseas League UK.
Fellow and Companion Chartered Management Institute Great Britain.
Trustee St Mary the Virgin Church Layer Marney Essex. Charity fund raiser
Professional International wildlife artist for animal charities.

As mentioned in the list to the right, Anton became a renowned wildlife artist, raising money for animal charities. He also supported other artists and regularly organised exhibitions. Some of his own paintings were used for cards, and the example above really shows the quality of his work.

The photo of Anton at the top of the page, which was provided by Srimi van Rossum (Anton's niece) was taken at his last exhibition which was at St James Gallery in London (see The Working Artist on YouTube)

Anton's home was in Layer Marney near Colchester. His wife Beryl sadly predeceased him in 2018, and at the time that we announced her passing Barry Williams, who had attended her funeral, wrote:

"Typical of Anton the array of guests was a range of interesting family and friends from England, Sri Lanka and worldwide. Beryl was a tremendous support to Anton Ratnayake who was a senior and successful manager who made a major contribution to the growth of OCL / P&O Containers in those heady days where fun was almost as important as work."

We have been advised by a representative of Anton's family that his funeral will be attended by close family and friends only, but there will be a memorial service to follow. Details for thatwill be shared once they are known.

Our deepest condolences go to Anton's family and friends.

29/09/2024

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