James Suranga teaches our Ceylon Tea Masterclass, having worked in the Sri Lankan Tea industry for over 20 years as a Tea Broker.

Having started as a Management Trainee at Forbes and Walker, he soon moved on to Asia Siyaka Commodity Brokers serving as a Vice President before being appointed as a Board Director / Executive Director to Ceylon Tea Brokers PLC.

Ceylon Tea Brokers was the only standalone public listed Tea Broker firm at the time, at which he served as the Chief Operations Officer and then as the Chief Executive officer, up until his migration to the UK in 2017.

During his tenure, he served on the Sri Lanka Tea Board Tasting panel representing the Broker community and was a Board Director for the Colombo Brokers Association. He represented the Colombo Brokers Association at the Colombo Tea Traders Association (CTTA) as the Tea Convenor for Tea Brokers, and was a member of the initial panel appointed by the Sri Lanka Tea board to carry out a feasibility study into the E-auction system, which is now in place. He has personally worked with most of the tea factories and Exporters in Sri Lanka and possess a vast in-depth understanding of their operations.

He is currently an entrepreneur involved in running a cafe based in Cambridge, UK.