NIHAL JAYAWARDENE PC
Appointed: August 2021
Appointed Chairman : 9th June 2023
Skills & Experience:
Mr. Jayawardene who is a distinguished old boy of St. Anthony’s College – Kandy, joined the Bar in 1983. He has his career experience as an officer of the Attorney General’s Department of Sri Lanka in excess of 20 years, Senior Lecturer of Sri Lanka Law College and Legal Consultant and Board Member in numerous Institutions. He is an Attorney at Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England & Wales.
Mr. Jayawardene has actively contributed for many law reforms initiatives taken place in Sri Lanka in the field of Civil Aviation, Company Law, and has extensive experience in Public Enterprises reforms programmes carried out in the areas of Insurance, Telecommunication, Aviation, Port & Shipping and Plantation sectors.
In recognition of immense contribution made to the Legal Profession as an eminent senior counsel in Corporate, Commercial, Aviation and Public Law he was appointed as a President’s Counsel in the year 2012.
Mr. Jayawardene also played a leading role in the process of drafting the Colombo Port City Economic Commissions Act. Presently involved in drafting Electricity Sector Reform Laws and Chairman of a Committee appointed to review the Bills of Exchange Ordinance and related Banking laws by the Minister of Justice.
Other Current Appointments:
He is presently the Chairman of Company Law Advisory Commission and a member of Board of Governors in Asian Institute of Business and Science (AIBS) and the in-house Counsel of Capital City Law. He is also a Member of the Intellectual Property Law Advisory Commission.
Previous appointments
Mr. Jayawardena has served as the founder Chairman of Lanka Sathosa Limited and a Director of Hotel Developers Lanka Limited from 2004 to 2015, a Director of Milco (Pvt) Ltd from 2005 -2008 and he also served as a Director of People’s Leasing and Finance PLC. Mr. Jayawardena has also been a Member of the Board of Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka.
JONATHAN ALLES
Appointed: July 2013
Executive Director Appointed: May 2013
Skills & Experience:
An experienced banker counting over 36 years of Banking experience, having served in several international Banks including the National Bank of Abu-Dhabi, Saudi British Bank-Riyadh, British Bank of the Middle-East and HSBC, Dubai and Colombo, before taking on the reins at HNB. Holds an MBA from the University of Stirling, UK and is an Associate Member of the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka.
Other Current Appointments:
Mr. Alles is a Director of the Sri Lanka Banks’ Association (SLBA). He is also a Director of the Asian Bankers Association (ABA) and serves as the Chairman of its Advisory Council. He is also a member of Sri Lanka Institute of Directors.
Mr Alles is a dynamic Banker and a corporate leader; he has contributed to HNB’s macro development with the Bank now operating through 254 customer centres, using cutting edge technological platforms and enabling a new paradigm in Sri Lanka’s banking culture. Under his leadership, HNB has received recognition from numerous international and local institutions and continues to set new benchmarks in the Sri Lankan banking industry.
Previous appointments
He served on many Boards within the HNB Group as well as in the Banking Industry. He was the Chairman of Sri Lanka Banks’ Association (Guarantee) Ltd from 2014 to 2016 and in 2018, he was elected Chairman of Asian Bankers Association for the period 2018 to 2021. He also served as the Chairman of Financial Ombudsman Sri Lanka (Guarantee) Ltd, HNB Finance Plc, Acuity Partners (Pvt) Ltd, Lanka Ventures Plc, LVL Energy Fund and Lanka Financial Services Bureau Ltd. He served as the Vice Chairman of Banking, Financial & Insurance Services Group of the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon.
Mr Alles was also a Director of Lanka Clear (Pvt) Ltd, HNB Assurance Plc, Sithma Development (Pvt) Ltd, HNB General Insurance Ltd, Acuity Stock Brokers (Pvt) Ltd and Prime Grameen Micro Finance Ltd. He served as a member of the Main Committee of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and was also a member of the Advisory Committee of Sri Lanka Business & Biodiversity Platform.
MADU RATNAYAKE
Appointed: October 2018
Skills & Experience:
A Chartered Engineer, he holds a MBA from the Postgraduate Institute of Management (Sri Jayawardenapura), a First Class Honors Degree in Software Engineering from City University in London and Dip.in Computer System Design (NIBM) Sri Lanka.
Has over 20 years’ experience in IT, digital transformation, project and service delivery. He has experience in large scale business transformation program design and execution, driving corporate innovation, cyber security, solution architecture, customer support, consultancy and general management in UK, USA, Australia, India and Sri Lanka. He has delivered multi-million-dollar projects to Fortune 1000 companies with geographically spread software teams.
Other Current Appointments:
Mr Ratnayake is the Co-Founder and Chairman of Scybers (Pvt) Ltd, a global cybersecurity consulting and managed services company, and Director of HSenid Business Solutions (Pvt) Ltd, first listed software technology company in Sri Lanka.
He represents the IT industry on the boards of several leading universities / institutions.
Previous appointments
Mr. Ratnayake was the Executive Vice President / Global CIO and the Center Head for Virtusa Sri Lanka. He has also served as a Director of Sanasa Development Bank from December 2014 to January 2016 and Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology.
He is also the Founder Director and former Chairman of Sri Lanka Association for Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM), the industry body for IT and BPM in Sri Lanka and the Chairman of Sarvodaya Fusion, the ICT4D arm of Sarvodaya, the largest NGO in Sri Lanka and he was an Independent/NonExecutive Director of Sri Lanka CERT (Pvt) Ltd, national cybersecurity agency and Director of Information Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), the National Agency for Digital Government.
DEVAKA COORAY
Appointed: July 2020
Skills & Experience:
Mr Cooray is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants of the United Kingdom.
Other Current Appointments:
Mr. Cooray is the Chairman of United Motors PLC and its subsidiaries. He is also the Managing Director of Management Systems (Pvt) Ltd and its subsidiaries. He serves as Director of HVA Foods PLC and JAT Holdings PLC.
Previous appointments
He has worked with Ernst & Young for over 40 years of which 30 years was as a Senior Assurance and Talent Partner. He functioned as the Deputy Managing Partner from 2016 to 2019 and served as a member of Ernst & Young’s Management Committee from the time the Management Committee was established in 1998 until his retirement in 2019. He was instrumental in establishing the Ernst & Young Practice in the Republic of Maldives in 1995 and functioned as the Partner responsible for the overall management of the Maldivian Practice from its inception. He represented Sri Lanka and Maldives for a number of years in the EY ASEAN Regional Partner Forum. He was seconded to EY USA for a year, where practical experience was gained by being part of assurance teams that performed audit engagements on several large enterprises.
Mr. Cooray also spearheaded the Ernst and Young Sri Lanka/ Maldives Family Business Centre for Excellence which was instrumental in sending several eminent second generation family members to business schools worldwide. He has also served as a member of the Council of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants UK.
DILSHAN RODRIGO
Appointed: July 2020
Skills & Experience:
Mr. Rodrigo possesses over two decades in banking experience and is the Executive Director / Chief Operating Officer of Hatton National Bank PLC. He provides administrative leadership to Finance, IT, Credit, Operations, Risk Management, Banking Services, Compliance and Internal Audit functions. He is overseeing the cross functional teams involved in improving governance and compliance by serving in several Board and Management committees in the Bank. Mr. Rodrigo holds a MBA from Cranfield University UK, FCMA UK and FCCA UK.
He has played a catalyst role in the bank’s transformation and cultural change by being the driving force towards centralization, automation, outsourcing and process improvement initiatives and recognized for driving a performance culture through training, talent acquisition and introducing several break through cost optimization initiatives.
Other Current Appointments:
Mr Rodrigo has held many senior positions in multiple industries ranging from banking, insurance, investment banking and apparel. He presently functions as Chairman of HNB Finance PLC and holds Directorships in HNB Assurance PLC, Guardian Acquity Management, Lanka Financial Services Bureau and Credit Information Bureau. Mr Rodrigo serves on the councils of the Sri Lanka Institute of Directors (SLID) and was the Chairman Policy Advocacy Committee of Asian Bankers Association (Taiwan) during 2011/12 and 2019/20.
Previous appointments
He has served as a lecturer and examiner on various undergraduate and postgraduate programs (CIMA, ACCA, PIM and University of Wales MBA programs) and is a Guest Lecturer for SLID, Director Certification Program. He has presented various technical papers in various forums locally and overseas on Strategy, Business Transformation and Risk Management. Mr. Rodrigo has also served on local governing councils of CIMA, APB, ACCA and Risk Professional Forum and in the latter two as President.
OSMAN CHANDRAWANSA
Appointed: April 2021
Skills & Experience:
Mr Chandrawansa served as the Controller of Exchange in Central Bank of Sri Lanka from 2009 to 2014 till his retirement. He holds a Master of Science degree in Banking and Finance and a postgraduate Diploma in Money and Banking from the University of Birmingham UK.
Mr Chandrawansa has published papers on foreign exchange forward market in Sri Lanka and Measures for Development, Feasibility of Inflation Targeting in Sri Lanka and empirical studies of the exchange rate volatility after the floatation of the Rupee and its implications for the Economy. He has contributed his knowledge in the capacity of a member of the Central Banks’ Financial Stability Committee, Study Team on Inflation Targeting for Sri Lanka and Annual Reports Perpetration Committee from time to time. He is a regular writer to the weekly papers published in the Island as well.
Previous appointments
Mr Chandrawansa had a long term service in the Central Bank starting from the year 1975. During his tenure he has held the positions in the Central Banks’ EPF Department, Matara Regional Office, International Operations Department, Economic Research Department as a Senior Economist, Domestic Operations Department, Financial System Stability Department, Department of Supervision on non-Bank financial institutions and the Exchange Control Department. He had received extensive training in banking & finance both internationally and locally. Mr Chandrawansa also served in the Ex-officio office of the National Gem & Jewellery Authority as a Director ex-officio from August 2009 to September 2014.
PRAWIRA RIMOE SALDIN
Appointed: April 2021
Skills & Experience:
Appointed as a Director in April 2021. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, an associate of Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants of London and a Certified Management Accountant Australia.
Mr Saldin has over 30 years of experience in Finance, Operations and General Management.
Prior to being appointed to the Board of Directors of Hatton National Bank PLC, Mr. Saldin functioned as Alternate Director to Mr. R.S. Captain from 26th July 2018 to 2nd April 2021.
Other Current Appointments:
He is presently the Director/CEO of Polypak Secco Ltd, a Director of Paints & General Industries Ltd and Polytex Properties and Investments Ltd. He is also the Chairman of Chemanex PLC and a Director of CIC Holdings PLC and serves on the Board of Directors of a number of companies in the CIC Group.
Mr. Saldin is an alumni of the Asia Institute of Management.
Previous appointments
Mr. Saldin has served as the Commercial Director and Group Finance Director of CIC Holdings PLC for the period 1995-2005. He was the Country Controller & Group Finance Director for Shell Sri Lanka for the period 2005-2010 and also the Group Chief Operating Officer, Browns Group of Companies PLC and the Managing Director of Browns Investments PLC from 2010-2014.
RASITHA GUNAWARDANA
Appointed Director – 21st January 2022
Skills & Experience:
Mr. Rasitha Gunawardana is a senior Banker with over 3 decades of experience covering major aspects of Banking.
Previous appointments
He served as the CEO/ General Manager of the Peoples Bank during the period 2019-2020. Prior to that, He held a number of Corporate and executive level positions, namely,
During this period, he played a major role in improving the Credit and Risk culture of the Bank, through introduction of risk-based credit and business policies/ procedures.
He held directorships in following establishments;
KITHSIRI GUNAWARDENA
Skills & Experience:
Has held a number of important positions in the State, including the office of State Counsel attached to the Attorney General’s Department, the Office of Director – Legal & Enforcement of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka and the Insurance Board of Sri Lanka and was involved in setting up the Consumer Affairs Authority as its first Director General.
Other Current Appointments:
Mr. Kithsiri Gunawardena is the Chief Operating Officer – LOLC & Chief Executive Officer - LOLC Insurance, he Joined LOLC in 2004 and counts over 30 years of experience as a Lawyer. He serves on the Boards of a number of local and overseas subsidiaries within the LOLC Group.
DR. PRASAD SAMARASINGHE
Appointed: October 2022
Skills & Experience:
Appointed as a Director in October 2022. Dr Prasad Samarasinghe holds a Doctorate in Telecommunications bestowed upon by Australian National University of Canberra. He achieved Master of Engineering and Bachelor of Science in Electronics and Telecommunications with a First Class from University of Moratuwa.
In addition, Dr Samarasinghe is a Licentiate of Part I and Part II of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and the recipient of best achiever status from the Institute in Financial Accounting, Business Mathematics Statistics and Data Processing in the year 1991.
Other Current Appointments:
Dr Samarasinghe is the Managing Director/ Director of Lanka Bell (Pvt) Ltd from July 2005 and also the Managing Director of Telecom Frontier (Pvt) Ltd, Bell Solutions (Pvt) Ltd from September 2008 and Bellvantage (Pvt) Ltd from April 2021.
Dr Samarasinghe is also a Director of Hayleys Fibre PLC, serving in its Board from September 2017, Director of DCSL Brewery (Pvt) Ltd and Maganeguma Road construction Equipment Company (Pvt) Ltd. Dr Samarasinghe represents Mr Damien Fernando on the Boards of HNB Assurance PLC and HNB General Insurance Ltd, as his alternate Director.
