Dr Maheshika Halbeisen

Dr Maheshika Halbeisen was born in Sri Lanka and left at 20, the first in her family to go, on a flight she cried through from Colombo to London. She holds a PhD in chemistry and an Executive MBA with distinction, both from the University of Hull, and has spent 18 years in the pharmaceutical industry, from the laboratory to leading global partnerships with some of the world's largest drug companies. She has lived in Britain for 23 years, is British by choice, and married into Switzerland. She is the author of The Job Well Done, on the leadership of Queen Elizabeth II, winner of the BookFest, Literary Titan and Goody Business Book awards and a Business Book Awards finalist, and the founder of Shika Group. Her dream is to see Sri Lanka House, the subject of the last chapter, built in Colombo; to see Ceylon brands known all over the world; and to see Sri Lanka become one of the most talked-about and most visited countries on earth. She would be happy if this book became a small stepping stone for someone, somewhere in a village in Sri Lanka, to take that first step.

• maheshika.com Her site, with her talks and her work
• The Job Well Done Her first book, on the leadership of Queen Elizabeth II
• Shika Group Her company