Guided by Experience.
Driven by Passion.
Meet the individuals dedicated to shaping your journey — mentors, educators, and industry professionals committed to your success.
The Faces Behind MCAS
The leadership team guiding MCAS and every student’s journey.
Faculty of MCAS
The academics and industry professionals who teach at MCAS.
Dr. Madura Thivanka Pathirana is an accomplished academic, researcher, and business strategy consultant specializing in sustainable tourism, regenerative development, and strategic management. He holds a Doctor of Business Administration from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, an MBA from Cardiff Metropolitan University, and a BA (Hons) in Business Administration from Staffordshire University, bridging higher education and industry practice across Australia, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. His career spans academic leadership roles at Edith Cowan University Sri Lanka and the University of the West of England, alongside executive experience as Managing Director of Madura Thivanka Holdings. In 2025, he completed a Research Fellowship in Blue Economics and Sustainable Tourism at the Griffith Institute for Tourism at Griffith University, focusing on marine stewardship and climate-resilient coastal management in the Asia-Pacific region.
His research centers on eco-innovation, community-based tourism, and sustainable business models aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with extensive publications in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes covering agritourism, gastronomic tourism, mangrove conservation, and post-crisis recovery. He has led DFAT-funded initiatives to empower rural and women entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka, and he serves as an Australia Awards alumnus, World Leisure Journal editorial board member, and committee member of Wildlife Tourism Australia. Through experiential learning and the integration of emerging technologies like generative artificial intelligence, Dr. Pathirana strives to foster cross-cultural collaboration and sustainability-driven leadership across global business and tourism ecosystems.
With 48 years of experience in aviation, organisational development and Learning and Development (L&D), my professional career has been defined by a commitment to building organisational capability, developing talent and enabling people to achieve their full potential.
My journey began with Air Ceylon in 1978, followed by Air Lanka, and subsequently Oman Aviation Services, where I was among the pioneers involved in establishing the organisation’s Training Division. This formative experience marked the beginning of a professional journey that would evolve into a lifelong commitment to learning, leadership development and organisational effectiveness.
I subsequently joined Emirates, where I spent three decades in Learning and Development, contributing to the development of people and capabilities across Airport Operations, Commercial, Service and Leadership, and Business Development. Working within a rapidly expanding, multicultural and internationally diverse organisation provided extensive experience in translating business requirements into practical learning strategies that supported operational readiness, service excellence and sustainable organisational growth.
During my tenure at Emirates, I contributed to the establishment of nearly 100 stations, project-managed four major terminal transitions, supported the opening of an international airport and facilitated the establishment of three overseas Ground Handling Agents. My responsibilities also encompassed addressing the learning and development requirements of almost 140 stations across the global network, in addition to the airline’s base operations.
A significant dimension of this work was building learning capability across geographically dispersed operations and diverse cultural environments. This included developing a network of more than 350 L&D facilitators and nurturing talent, including professionals who entered training without prior aviation experience and developed into highly capable industry practitioners. These experiences reinforced my conviction that sustainable organisational performance depends not only on effective systems and processes, but also on the competence, confidence and commitment of the people who deliver them.
While large-scale projects, operational transitions and global expansion were important professional milestones, my greatest sense of achievement has always come from seeing people grow in capability, confidence and professional maturity. For me, the enduring value of leadership is reflected in the people we develop, the opportunities we create and the capabilities that remain long after our direct involvement has ended.
This philosophy continues through Inspiring Development Solutions, a people-development initiative I established in Sri Lanka to support organisations seeking to strengthen their Learning and Development practices. My focus is on introducing contemporary, practical and internationally informed approaches to learning, competency development and performance improvement, ensuring that learning interventions are aligned with organisational priorities and translate into meaningful workplace outcomes.
Today, my professional interests continue to centre on leadership development, competency-based learning, facilitation excellence, organisational capability and the thoughtful integration of emerging technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, into learning design and delivery. I believe the future of professional development lies in combining the strengths of human judgement, experience, creativity and empathy with the opportunities offered by technology.
Across every stage of my career, one principle has remained constant: people development is not simply a training function; it is a strategic investment in organisational performance and human potential.
My professional purpose can be expressed in a single belief:
The true measure of learning is not what people know at the end of a programme, but what they are able to do, how they grow, and what they ultimately achieve as a result.
Lakshi Pathmaperuma is an experienced Higher Education Business Lecturer with over eight years of teaching experience in Business Management and related disciplines. She is currently based in the United Kingdom, where she works in the corporate sector as a Retail Manager, while continuing her academic career as a part-time online lecturer.
She has extensive experience delivering UK-awarded higher education programmes, including Pearson BTEC HND, NCC UK and international foundation programmes. Her academic expertise includes Business Management, International Business, Human Resource Management, Marketing, Business Strategy, Leadership and Aviation Management.
Lakshi holds an MSc in International Business and Management from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and an MBA from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, both achieved with Merit. She also holds a First-Class Honours BA (Hons) in Business Management from Staffordshire University.
Her combination of UK corporate experience and higher education teaching allows her to bring practical industry knowledge into the classroom, helping students connect academic theory with real-world business practices. She is passionate about student development, inclusive teaching and preparing learners for successful academic and professional careers.
The Academic and Industry Advisory Board
