Sinnen himself inaugurated Thangasamy during the society’s 19th annual general meeting at the Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh on Thursday.
A new committee of 15 members was unanimously elected for the current year at the meeting, supervised by the embassy’s First Secretary Wishwanath Aponsu.
They include Ravika De Silva and Shamil Hameed as vice presidents, Michael Nickson as general secretary and Sivakumar Raju as general treasurer.
Speaking on the occasion, Aponsu said the embassy was happy and elated to have the services of SLES in the Saudi capital. “It renders yeoman services for the welfare of the Sri Lankan community both in Riyadh as well as in the motherland,” he stressed.
Appreciating its services, Aponsu advised the new president to appoint a special committee to chalk out an integrated plan to identify new areas of services that could be rendered by the society to its community members.
SLES operates a free medical clinic and benevolent fund to assist workers in need.
Thangasamy told the present members to help the society develop a new plan for 2011 in deference to the proposals made by Aponsu.
He said the Riyadh society remains an example for bringing all three of Sri Lanka’s major communities, including Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims, under one umbrella to work for a common cause.
The president of the organization is elected from each of these communities annually on a rotation basis.
Moving a vote of appreciation on the outgoing committee headed by Sinnen, a senior past president of the society said 2010 was an eventful year where the members witnessed several innovative programs that helped the organization to increase its membership twofold.
He requested the new committee led by Thangasamy to organize new activities that would be beneficial to community members living in the Kingdom as well as in Sri Lanka.
