Nelum Erandika Wickremasinghe

Co-Founder/ Managing Partner, OPATA

Nelum, the third born child of her family had a greater interest to work with her artistic hands since her childhood which ultimately made her become one of the successful woman entrepreneurs who established OPATA in 2007 that manufactures and supplies home textile products with her life partner, Isuru Jayasinghe.

The solid foundation of such a wonderful yet challenging journey was to learn and get trained in all these needle works under the renowned teachers at that time. She always wanted to explore more opportunities in order to showcase her potential in working with colours as well as stitching and crafting. As a result of her enthusiasm, she became the 1st runners-up of the table category at the All-Island Patchwork & Needle craft Competition held in 2004.

Nelum is always a flexible and friendly character that paved her reach many business opportunities to deal with specially with giant supermarket chains as well as shopping malls in Sri Lanka. Another milestone was to get selected for the Australia Awards Short course for Women Trading Globally Sri Lanka conducted by the Australia high commission in Sri Lanka and the Export council of Australia, made a significant change in the business to gain much confidence in stepping into the export market. Having gained these sustainable experiences as well as with more environmentally safe products in home textile industry, she is in the mission of elevating her maiden business to the international market.