Professor Dharma de Silva, the Chair of the World Trade Council of Wichita at Barton School of Business, Wichita State was awarded the highest honor of the Academy the Distinguished Global Leadership Award. He was awarded for his contributions to the advancement of global management education and practice at the 32nd Annual Pan Pacific Business Association ceremony in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Dr. Sang Lee, Chair introduced Dr. De Silva and the citation read by Dr. Clay Whybark highlighted accomplishments ranging from pioneering the integrated management education model at Bachelor’s and MBA/MPA levels in Sri Lanka in mid 1960’s as founding dean.

Dr. Dharma De Silva earned his Ph.D. International Trade & Business, Indiana University; MS, Southern Illinois University; BS. BA, University of Evansville. He holds PGDip ICAME Marketing Management, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, PG Certificate EDP, Harvard University, PGDip Soviet Economics & Trade, Ohio State University.

At Wichita State his founding Center for International Business Advancement (CIBA) in a unique strategic alliance with the business community, founded the World Trade Council Wichita, engaged trained students, resulting in the conduct of over 500 country and company trade events and over 150 international trade seminars. The Council has won the US President’s E and EStar Awards and remains the only council operating on a US campus to win both awards. His scholarly work includes over 100 articles and paper presentations.