Dmitri Cooray

Deputy Managing Director, Jetwing Hotels

“For as long as I can remember, holidays were always spent down south in Yala or at Jetwing Lighthouse, and in Negombo at the Blue Oceanic which holds a special place in our family as it is where my grandfather started his journey.”To say hospitality runs in Dmitri’s blood is an understatement. The third generation of our founding family spent a great deal of their childhood growing up in our hotels around Sri Lanka - long enough for Dmitri to confidently say that he always wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather.

Beyond his cricket-crazy school days at St. Joseph’s College in Colombo, Dmitri earned his professional qualifications from the Singapore Hotel and Tourism Education Centre (SHATEC) and Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School in Australia. Equipped with a Diploma in Hotel Management, and a degree in Hotel and Resort Management, Dmitri then began learning the tricks of the trade as a waiter at the Shangri-La Singapore – which he recalls included banquets that hosted up to 1000 guests.“Our upbringing instilled our grandfather’s values in us,” Dmitri says, explaining the importance of humility in his career. “The grounding we got ensured we were always comfortable working with anyone from anywhere, no matter how hard the task”. Dmitri’s intrinsic knack for the industry later took his career in F&B to another Shangri-La in Australia before eventually returning to Sri Lanka as a Management Trainee at Jetwing Blue and Jetwing Beach.

Only after gradually building his career back home did Dmitri move into his current position of Manager- Operations. Today, he helps maintain high standards across the Jetwing family with not only the occasional input of his F&B expertise, but also the timeless embodiment of his family values that drive all hotel operations.