Upali Wijewardene

He was presumed dead on 13 February 1983 when his private Learjet disappeared soon after leaving Malaysia en route to Colombo over the Straits of Malacca.

Upali was licensed as a pilot at the time, spent about 20 million rupees in local currency and added another controller to the rear body in addition to the pilot controller. On 13 February 1983, his private jet, a Learjet 35A, took off from Kuala Lumpur at 8:41 pm, bound for Colombo. After his return trip from Malaysia, he was going to be nominated as a Finance Minister of Sri Lanka from the national List replacing Ronie De Mel by the President J R Jayewardena. When Upali arrived in Colombo, the next day he would be named the Finance Minister of Sri Lanka. On board with him were his Malaysian lawyer S.M. Ratnam, Upali Group Director Ananda Peli Muhandiram, pilot Capt. Noel Anandappa, co-pilot Sydney Soysa, and steward S. Senenakye. Fifteen minutes later, the aircraft disappeared while flying over the Straits of Malacca. Extensive search operations by air and naval units of Sri Lanka, India, the United States, the Soviet Union, Australia, Indonesia, and Malaysia failed to locate any evidence of a crash.

He went to Colombo Girls' College with his two older sisters, Anoja and Kalyani, to attend primary school. The girls' college was reserved for women only, but there were few boys in the lower classes. He attended Royal College, Colombo and later graduated from Queens' College at Cambridge University in England. In 1982, he converted to Buddhism. An amateur racing enthusiast, Wijewardene raced his mother's Opel Kapitan at the Katukurunde Races in the early 1960s.

In February 1981, he published a comic Chithra Mithra. Within a few months, the magazine reached a circulation of 200,000. Media initially described the magazine as "romance, booze, money, travel, dreams, adventure, wild women" crammed into 16 pages. It expanded into 32 pages with a different story on every page. Editor Janaka Ratnayake noted that the publication had "many topics-romance, detective, sci-fi, heroes, two pages built around movie stars, and almost a page of pen pal" (1993). All the stories were serialised and in black and white with a spot of one color. The comic magazine fell apart after Wijewardene's death and ceased publication in 1986 with a circulation of 15,000. Ratnayake cited the failure of the magazine to Wijewardene's early death, the sub-standard printing quality of the paper due to unskilled mechanics and competition from other magazines.

A British journalist, Matt Miller, described him in Insight Magazine: "Largely through bravado and wit, Philip Upali Wijewardene parlayed a bankrupt confectionery plant into Sri Lanka’s only multi national business group and one of Asia’s leading cocoa based products conglomerates. Intriguingly he accomplished his overseas empire-building at a time when his country strictly prohibited the export of currency. And now the 43-year-old commodity wizard (this was 1981) has started what could be Upali's Third Plan... He would be willing, he says with uncharacteristic restraint, to become Sri Lanka's president someday".

He set up an organization called 'Ruhunu Udanaya' and worked hard to create opportunities for young people in Kamburupitiya and the surrounding areas to learn English and computer technology. In the meantime, he started Upali Newspapers and published daily and weekly newspapers including Divaina, The Island and Navaliya. Following a new method of distributing newspapers, he used his own aircraft to deliver newspapers to remote areas such as Anuradhapura and Jaffna before 8 am. In 1980, he traveled to Silicon Valley and signed five agreements there, including one with Motorola. The construction of chip plants started in 1983, but the Sri Lankan Civil war brought bombing over the country, killed some of the engineers assigned to the construction of the plants, which led the chip manufacturers to leave Sri Lanka in favour of Malaysia.

In 1980 he also won the Singapore Derby at the Bukit Timah Race Course in Singapore and the Perak Derby at the Perak Turf Club in Malaysia with his horse, named "Vaaron". He raced "General Atty" too and won many races in England. He flew to all these countries where his horses were racing, in his private aircraft. He made it a point to fly from Newmarket Racecourse in England to Nuwara Eliya Racecourse in Sri Lanka to watch his horses and ponies racing there.

Upali Group of Companies achieved global fame by manufacturing chocolates and confectionery under the names of Kandos, Delta, soaps under Crystal, Tingle Sikuru, and appliances such as radios and air-conditioners under the brand name Unic, many of which are still in existence today. In the aviation sector, he made introduced the brand Upali Air, operating several aircraft for private, domestic and international flights. As an investor, Upali made significant investments in Malaysia and Singapore and was in the process of opening offices in New York. In 1978, Upali Wijewardene was appointed by President J. R. Jayewardene as the first Chairman/Director General of the Greater Colombo Economic Commission (GCEC) (now known as the Board of Investment) of Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan political establishment did not favor his arrival in politics. In this position, Wijewardene worked to attract foreign investment to develop local industries in the new open economy. He formed Free Trade Zones in Katunayake, Biyagama and Koggala.

Upali Wijewardene was a cousin of President J. R. Jayewardene and scientist Ray Wijewardene. In 1975, he married Lakmini Ratwatte, daughter of Dr Seevali Ratwatte, brother of Sirimavo Bandaranaike. She is the granddaughter of Barnes Ratwatte Dissawa. His brother-in-laws were General Sepala Attygalle and Professor Stanley Wijesundera. He grew up in his ancestral home the Sedawatta Walawwa and moved to his own house in Thurstan Road designed by Geoffrey Bawa which included its own helipad for his private helicopter. He also had a country house the Sunnycroft Bungalow in Nuwara Eliya. He was a car racing enthusiast. He was the Basnayake Nilame (chief lay custodian) of the Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara which had been supported by his family.

Then he went to the gem mines in Ratnapura and started to gain an understanding of the gem industry and earned a high income from gem exports. He then introduced Upali Mazda and Upali Fiat to the car market where he manufactured at the Upali industrial complex in Homagama. However, Upali had no savings other than the advance money earned by publishing newspaper advertisements that his products would be released within ten months. He thereafter ventured out on his own after his uncle Senator Sarath Chandradasa Wijesinghe gave him substantial shares of his Ceylon Chocolates Company. Diversifying his holdings, he founded the Upali Group of Companies during the mid-1960s as he developed a conglomerate of companies. With the help of his friend Ratnam, he cultivated 14,000 acres of cocoa in Malaysia and was able to issue "Kandos Chocolate" to the world.

Philip Upali Wijewardene (17 February 1938 – 13 February 1983: Sinhala: උපාලි විජේවර්ධන) was a Sri Lankan business magnate. Considered one of the best-known entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka, he had accumulated a net worth of US$50 Million by 1983. He was the founder and chairman of Upali Group, the first multi-national business in Sri Lanka. Which had businesses in the USA, UK, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Hongkong. The Upali Group which diversified from confectionery to electronics and automobile manufacturing, publishing, print media, leisure and aviation developed many of its own brands such as Kandos, Delta, Unic, Upali Air, Upali Mazda and Upali Newspapers which Insight Magazine UK said was achieved "largely through bravado and wit".

He was born on 17 February 1938 to the wealthy Wijewardene family from Kelaniya, he was the only son of Don Walter Tudugalle Wijewardene who died when he was 18 months old. Upali was brought up by his mother Anula Kalyanawathie Wijewardene at the family home Sedawatte Walawwe. He had two sisters, Anoja Wijesundera and Kalyani Attygalle.