Dananjaya J Hettiarachchi won the World Championship of Public Speaking at Toastmasters International Convention.

This is the first time a Sri Lankan has been able to win this award.

Each year, the Toastmasters International Convention culminates in the International Speech Contest, the final speech contest which crowns the World Champion of Public Speaking.

A panel of experienced Toastmasters judges evaluate nine contestants from different parts of the world, all of whom have advanced to the finals following a year-long process of elimination through club, area, district and semifinal competitions.

Criteria used in judging includes speech content, organization, voice quality and gestures.

Dananjaya Hettiarachchi is a Human Resource Development specialist. He is amongst a handful of HRD consultants in the Asia-Pacific region that specializes in Performance Prediction, Profiling based Recruitment and Rapid Competency Development in adults.

Dananjaya has pioneered several adult learning and performance prediction models that are currently being used by global organizations to meet specific challenges in training, recruitment and performance management.