Merrill J. Fernando

Fernando was born in Pallansena, Negombo, British Ceylon in 1930. Fernando attended Maris Stella College in Negombo and Saint Joseph's College, Colombo in his youth. His first job was as a inspector for a U.S. petroleum company.[2]

Fernando was one of the first Sri Lankan tea tasters to be selected to learn about tea in Mincing Lane, London. Up until this time, the prevailing colonial system did not believe Sri Lankans were capable of assessing tea as they felt they ate too much curry which would affect their assessment of the taste. However, Fernando was one of five who were selected and trained in London.[3]

It was in London that Fernando witnessed a system of colonial exploitation that treated tea producing countries as raw material suppliers whereas branding and value addition were done overseas and all profits accrued never reached the producers.[4] This greatly disturbed Fernando, who dreamed that someday he would create his own brand of tea where the producing country would receive all profits from value addition and thereby get their due recognition.[5] He wanted to bring integrity back into tea.[6][7] With this intention he became, quite literally, the “face” of his brand, his smiling persona emblazoned on tea packets around the world as he urged people: “Do try it.” He wanted to bring quality, authenticity and ethics back to tea. Fresh tea is rich in antioxidants and so he wanted to offer his consumers tea that was garden fresh handpicked and packed at its origin. Fernando strongly believed that consumers had the right to know exactly what they were drinking and so he pioneered the concept of single origin tea.[8]

Fernando believes in the philosophy of seeing business as a matter of human service. 10% of all Dilmah profits are channelled to the MJF Charitable Foundation [9] which is working towards the dignified empowerment of underprivileged people around Sri Lanka.[10] Each year, the foundation cares for over 5,000 children in its Child Development Centres, nurtures over 1000 children through the MJF Kids, empowers women, and has created over 600 entrepreneurs through the Small Entrepreneur Programme – SEP– and uplifted the lives of countless plantation workers. These are only a few of over 100 projects the MJF Foundation implements each year.[11][12]

In 2007, Fernando extended his commitment to human service by establishing Dilmah Conservation www.dilmahconservation.org which focuses on working towards a more sustainable use of the environment in partnership with IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The Dilmah Conservation initiative aims to foster respect for the environment and ensure its protection by encouraging a harmonious co-existence of man and nature.[13] In 2010, Fernando made a Declaration of a Core Commitment to Sustainability which expanded the Dilmah Conservation scope and scale to include initiatives in the areas of Habitat & Species Conservation – both terrestrial and marine, Ecosystems Restoration, Environmental Education and Culture & Indigenous Communities.[14] In 2016, The Merrill J. Fernando Eco Innovation Awards was initiated calling for breakthrough, purposeful proposals of well-developed concepts and working prototypes that seek to solve current national and global environmental issues in the areas of Waste, Water, Energy, Blue Economy and Biodiversity.[15] “I want to prevent the hardship of young entrepreneurs of today when I compare myself with the hardship that I went through in launching Dilmah Tea,” Fernando said at the awards ceremony.[16]

Dilmah is the first producer owned tea brand in the world and is among the top ten tea brands. Merrill with over 70 years of expertise in tea has the distinction of being the most experienced teamaker in the world today. In 2005, Dilmah received an award from the Medinge Group for its work as a Brand with a Conscience and also received a Presidential Merit Award for contribution to the preservation of the environment in the same year. On the 6th of May 2015, Fernando received the Business for Peace Award in Oslo, Norway.[17] The Business for Peace Foundation annually names honourees for the Oslo Business for Peace Award in recognition of business persons who, through their own actions and commitments truly are business worthy, promoting socially responsible and ethical business practice in an outstanding way, and standing out as examples to the world.[18] In September 2016 Merrill was honoured with the Global Businessman Award at the Ada Derana Sri Lankan of the Year 2016. The award seeks to honour and celebrate the outstanding achievements of individuals/groups whose efforts have far-reaching influence on the country, positively impacting the local community and thereby help place Sri Lanka on the international limelight.

On November 30, 2016 Fernando was honoured with the FIRST Award for Responsible Capitalism and the award was presented by Philip Hammond MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, at the Royal Automobile Club, London. The Award recognises business ethics, emphasising his unique philosophy of making business a matter of human service. Fernando is the only Sri Lankan to have received this Award. The previous award winners include Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi the enormously respected CEO of PepsiCo, the Prince of Wales, and Prof. John Kay of the London School of Economics, to name a few.[19][20][21]

• The Cup of Kindness. Dilmah Publication. 2012.

• The Story Behind Your Cup of Tea. MJF Charitable Foundation. 2013.

• The Teamaker (2009). Dilmah Publication.[22]