Anura joined the School in 2001 having completed his PhD in Accounting at University of Wollongong, Australia. Prior to this, Anura spent 8 years in Japan teaching and conducting research into the cost management and management accounting practices of Japanese manufacturing companies. His fascination with Japanese culture, especially Japanese cost management systems such as Genka Kikaku, Just-in-time (JIT) and Kaizen, as well as his close associations with Japanese researchers and organisations, has given him unique insight which informs his research and teaching at UOW.
Anura's research and teaching commitments at UOW have developed his expertise in cost management, small business management, corporate governance, accounting education, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability. Currently, he lectures and coordinates subjects in the areas of management accounting and financial management.
Anura's extensive experience in teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate subjects at universities in Sri Lanka, Japan and Australia spans more than 30 years. His ability to draw on this experience makes him a valued member of the School. He has more than 90 publications in both English and Japanese, including 38 journal articles and 39 domestic and international conference papers. Anura's publications on UOWs institutional repository, Research Online, have attracted more than 82,000 downloads from 172 countries since 2008. He has 1,700 citations and H index of 18 as per Google Scholar.
In addition, Anura is actively engaged in supervising higher degree research students. He has successfully supervised 17 HDR students to completion, including 12 PhD students and 5 Masters by Research students. Anura is a professionally qualified accountant holding CPA, CMA and FCA memberships. He also has practical experience in accounting, auditing and taxation from working as a chartered accountant.
For his teaching efforts, Anura has been awarded the Vice Chancellors University Award for Outstanding Contribution to Teaching and Learning (OCTAL) in 2019. For his research supervision efforts, he was also awarded the Vice Chancellors Award for Research Supervision (Highly Commended) in 2019. These awards are a testament to his long and sustained contributions to the domains of both teaching and research.