Sri Lanka, Feb. 4 -- Veteran businessman Harry Jayawardena passed away at the age of 82, yesterday.

Don Harold Stassen Jayawardena, popularly known as Harry Jayawardena, was born on August 17, 1942 in Ja-Ela and became the wealthiest person in Sri Lanka in 2008.

Jayawardena was the Chairman of Melstacorp PLC and a prominent industrialist and philanthropist.

He had also served as the Chairman of both Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka and Aitken Spence, the first Sri Lankan companies ever to be listed on the Forbes List of Best Managed Companies outside the USA. He was recognised with the 'Deshamanya' title for his services to Sri Lanka, in 2005.

He was the Honorary Consul for Denmark and was awarded the 'Knight's Cross of Dannebrog' by...