Principal of Royal College Mr.Upali Gunasekara is a skilled administrator in the field of education. His administrative abilities were proved beyond doubt during his tenure as the Principal of Isipathana College, where he served for six years before assuming duties as the principal of Royal.

Mr. Gunasekara hails from the Southern part of the Island. He started his education at the village school and later joined Richmond College , Galle. From the Grade 7 Scholarship Examination he gained entrance to Ananda College, Colombo,and completed his secondary education at Ananda College and entered the University of Peradeniya for higher studies. Having obtained a Chemistry Special Degree, he joined the the University Tutorial Staff as an assistant lecturer for a short period .

Mr. Gunasekara was a member of the first batch of administrators in the Sri Lanka Education Administrative Service, selected by an open examination. It is worthy of mention that only a hundred and sixteen persons were selected from the whole countryfor this service. He underwent one year training at the National Institute of Education, Maharagama before beign appointed as an Assistant Director of Education for the Matara district.

Being one of the best administrators of his batch, Mr. Gunasekara was appointed as Assistant Director of Education at the Ministry of Education by the then Education Minister and he served in this capacity for one year.

Mr. Gunasekara was hand-picked by the then Principal of D.S. Senanayake College, Mr. R.I.T. Alles to become the Deputy Principal of the College in 1990. Having served in this capacity for seven years, he was promoted as the Principal of Isipathana College.During his tenure, he maintained strict discipline and was able to improve the academic standards to an unprecedented level. It was under his patronage that Career Guidance activities were introduced to the school. Chess, as a game was improved, as did many other sports and games.

While being a top Education Administrator Mr. Gunasekara is involved in outside Educational matters. While being a member of the Academic Affairs Committee of the National Institute of Education he is a Member of the Special Committee on General Education in the National Education Commission.He was a member of the National Curriculum Consultative Committee of the NIE He worked as a Working committee member of the National Science Foundation of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Mr.Gunasekara was the Convener of the Committee to develop a policy on teache transfers and placements of Education Officers.