MIB alumnus first Sri Lankan to graduate from the program

Alumnus Chamal Mediwaka was the first Sri Lankan citizen to complete his Master of International Business at the Darla Moore School of Business.

After graduating with his MIB in May 2021, Mediwaka began working for the Strom Law Firm in Columbia, South Carolina, as a business analyst.

Mediwaka assists Strom Law Firm with their strategic marketing plans, including predicting future customer market trends, monitoring market data analytics to ensure campaigns are optimized, effective and driving results and overseeing the firm’s website’s search engine optimization efforts.

From Kandy, Sri Lanka, Mediwaka moved to the U.S. eight years ago to pursue his undergraduate degree in economics and minoring in political science and peace and social justice at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky. After he graduated in 2018, Mediwaka worked as an advisor for the United Nations and then moved to Columbia to become the director of marketing for Home Advantage Realty, a brokerage company that provides real estate services across the Midlands of South Carolina.

A few years after finishing his undergraduate degree, Mediwaka started to consider graduate programs that he could pursue.

“During my research, the Darla Moore School of Business stood out to me because of its high reputation for its international business programs and the top-ranked faculty,” he said.

Mediwaka said he decided to enroll in the Master of International Business program because of its reputation and especially for the customizability of the program.

“I studied the International Market Development track because I want to pursue my career in market consulting while focusing on the corporate social responsibility and market development sectors,” he said.

In additon to pursuing his Master of International Business, Mediwaka completed the Global Strategy Graduate Certificate and was named a UPS Global Scholar.

As a freelance marketing consultant and a social media influencer, Mediwaka develops innovative marketing, public relations, search engine optimization strategies and creates unique social media content for different organizations.

As an Instagram influencer with more than 56,000 followers and an average weekly reach of 75,000 accounts, Mediwaka has worked with brands such as T-Mobile, Disney, OrangeTheory, Adidas, DHEC, Department of Education, Tifosi, Hincapie Sportswear, South Carolina Tourism, Kentucky Tourism and New York City Tourism.

Mediwaka has earned some impressive accolades, including:

• Being named “Best Local Social Media Influencer - Runner Up” in 2020 and 2021 by The Free Times.
• Being nominated for the “Best Photographer and Philanthropist for South Carolina” in 2019 by The State newspaper.
• Making the list of “Top 10 Travel & Tourism Instagram Accounts” in 2017 by the Sri Lanka Department of Tourism.
• Being nominated for the “Best Outdoor Activity Instagram” in 2016 by Kentucky Tourism.
• Earning a Google Master Reviewer status with 19 million photo and video views.

Mediwaka said he has been able to directly apply the skills that he learned in the Master of International Business program to his work at Strom Law Firm and his freelance clients.

“The skills I learned in the MIB program are allowing me to expand my knowledge, diversify my skills and offer a wider range of services to my clients while bringing in new and different perspectives that help them grow,” he said.

Helping him shape some of his new perspectives, Mediwaka said he took many classes in the MIB program that allowed him to further develop his soft and hard skills.

“There were some very interesting classes and Comparative Corporate Governance was one of them,” he said. “I was interested in that course mainly due to my personal interest in investing in the stock market and knowing how governance of companies work and how it could impact the companies as well as markets.

Mediwaka notes he has many aspirations for the future.

“There are many future goals, but one of them would be to start my own consulting firm that focuses not only on marketing but management, leadership and operations while focusing on the importance of corporate social responsibility,” he said.

Mediwaka said he is thankful for the resources and support the Moore School provided him to prepare him for a successful career.

“Learning from the diverse top-notch faculty at the Moore School and working with a diverse group of students from all over the world was a great experience even though opportunities were limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. “The guest lecturers we had in most of the classes represented reputed companies, and they gave me a lot of new perspective on how to look at things and operate in the global corporate world.”

-Claire McGrath