S.M.L. Marikkar

Seyed Mohamed Lebbe Marikar, CCS (June 29, 1939) was a Sri Lankan civil servant and diplomat. He was a former Permanent Secretary to the President of Sri Lanka.

Early life and education

Born to Mohamed Abdul Sathar Marikar [ [http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lkawgw/masmarikar.jpgMohamed Abdul Sathar Marikar] ] and Fathima Sinnetamby Badurdeen [ [http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lkawgw/marikar1.jpgFathima Sinnetamby Badurdeen] ] on June 29, 1939, in the the hill-town of Kandy when Ceylon was under British colonial rule. His parents named him after his paternal grandfather S.M.L. Marikar [ [http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lkawgw/smlmarikar.jpgS.M.L. Marikar] ] , the British colonial Governor Sir Henry Arthur Blake's representative to the Kandy district.

Ahmed as he is affectionately referred to by friends and family, attended Trinity College, Kandy, an Anglican missionary school, for both his primary and secondary education. He gained entry into the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya Campus along with college mate Jayantha Dhanapala ( one of Sri Lanka's former ambassador to the United States of America), Dr Sarath Amunugama and N. G. Perera.

Career

Upon graduation with first class honors from the University of Ceylon, Ahmed Marikar sat for the Ceylon Civil Service (CCS) exam and passed the competitive exam. His first placement was that of Assistant Government Agent in Kandy. Thereafter he was then assigned as a Assistant Secretary to the Ministry of External Affairs and Defence, in the capital Colombo. Around this time period, the government of Sri Lanka provided him with the opportunity to complete a graduate degree at Syracuse University, in the United States of America.

In the mid 1970s he was appointed to the position of First Secretary to the Embassy of Sri Lanka, in Rome, Italy and the alternate Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). Upon completion of his tenure in 1979, he returned to Sri Lanka to accept the position of Additional Secretary and subsequently Permanent Secretary to the then President of Sri Lanka, Junius Richard Jayewardene. He was in this position until 1989.

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