{
  "id": 17499623,
  "title": "Mark and Comm appoints Thilina Samarasinghe as Consulting Director for Media & Advocacy",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/31/mark-and-comm-appoints-thilina-samarasinghe-as-consulting-director",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-31T23:45:57.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Island Sri Lanka",
    "slug": "the-island-sri-lanka",
    "url": "http://island.lk/mark-and-comm-appoints-thilina-samarasinghe-as-consulting-director-for-media-advocacy/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "The Island Sri Lanka reports that Mark and Comm (Pvt) Ltd, a Colombo-based strategic communications and public relations agency, has appointed Ruwan Thilina Samarasinghe as Consulting Director for Media & Advocacy, starting October 12, 2026. Samarasinghe has over 30 years of experience in journalism, media relations, and strategic communications, with a particular focus on advocacy, policy, and crisis communication. He previously served as Group Head of Media Relations, Strategic Communications, and Crisis Communications at Adfactors Public Relations Lanka. Samarasinghe's career began in the newsroom, where he served as Business Editor at Ravaya Weekly Newspaper and was awarded Business Journalist of the Year three times. He is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Economic Policy Studies at the University of Colombo. At Mark and Comm, Samarasinghe will work alongside the agency's media relations team and consult their advocacy and strategic communications practice for clients dealing with policy, economic, and industry-level conversations. The agency, which works across various sectors such as technology, aviation, financial services, and healthcare, has received several awards for its services. Samarasinghe expressed his excitement about joining the agency, praising their reputation for serious, substantive work.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}