Bankers to the Nation

Showing the Way

Board of Directors

Seated – Left to Right

Mr Ronald C Perera PC – Chairman, Mr Ranel T Wijesinha

Standing – Left to Right

Mr H P Ajith Gunawardana, Mr Sanjaya Padmaperuma, Mr Sajith R Attygalle, Mr Charitha N Wijewardane, Ms Janaki Senanayake Siriwardane – Secretary, Bank of Ceylon/Secretary to the Board

Mr Ronald C Perera

President’s Counsel

Chairman, Independent Non-Executive Director
Skills and Experience

Mr Perera is an experienced lawyer with a wide practice in the Original Courts as well as in the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, especially in the areas of civil and criminal litigation, negotiation and drafting of commercial and transport contracts and agreements. He has specialised in Commercial Law, Banking Law, Industrial Law, Injunctions, Defamation, Election Petitions, Civil Appeals, Revision Applications, Writ Applications and Fundamental Rights Cases. Additionally, he has appeared in several Commercial Arbitrations. Mr Perera is a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) Graduate from the University of Colombo and also holds a LLM in International Trade Law from Northumbria University, UK.

Appointed to the Board

On 28 January 2015 as the Chairman.

Membership of Board Subcommittees

Chairman of the Board Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee.

Member of the Human Resources and Remuneration Committee.

Current Appointments

The Chairman of BOC (UK) Limited.

Previous Key Appointments

He was a Director of Bank of Ceylon, Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka & Finance PLC, Mireka Capital Land (Private) Limited and Mireka Homes (Private) Limited.

Mr Sajith R Attygalle

Non-Executive Ex-Officio Director
Skills and Experience

Mr Attygalle is an Assistant Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and currently serves as a Deputy Secretary to the Treasury. He has over 25 years of experience in the area of Monetary and Fiscal Policy.

He holds a Masters (MSc) Degree in Quantitative Development Economics from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom and a Bachelor of Science (BSc) Degree in Physical Science from the University of Colombo.

Appointed to the Board

On 27 April 2016.

Membership of Board Subcommittees

Member of the Board Audit Committee and the Human Resources and Remuneration Committee.

Current Appointments

Mr. Attygalle is representing the Treasury at the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka as a Commission member and Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Limited
as a Director.

Previous Key Appointments

Prior to the appointment as the Deputy Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Attygalle had been serving as the Director General of the Department of Fiscal Policy and Department of Public Enterprises of the Ministry of Finance and Planning and has contributed substantially to the Government’s endeavours in the fiscal consolidation process. He has been contributing towards the formulation of the Annual Budget and leading the technical team for the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China.

He had also served as a Director and Acting Chairman of National Savings Bank and a Director on the Board of Bank of Ceylon and Regional Development Bank and also represented the Treasury as a Board Member in several Boards in key Government institutions such as Sri Lanka Ports Authority.

Mr Ranel T Wijesinha

Independent Non-Executive Director
Skills and Experience

Mr Ranel Wijesinha, a practicing, independent, international management consultant, with over 35 years of post-qualification experience, has a distinctive balance of local and overseas exposure between the private and public sector, between industry and public practice and between accounting, auditing and consulting.

He has contributed to the Public Sector, through many statutory, regulatory and advisory roles, for the Government of Sri Lanka, over the last two and a half decades.

During the immediately preceding decade, he has performed advisory work in the Public Sector for foreign governments in several countries on behalf of multilateral development partners such as the Asian Development Bank. These assignments included, functioning as Team Leader in Governance and Institutional Risk Assessments relating to Public Financial Management and Procurement, Infrastructure-related Financial Management Assessments, Project Evaluation, and Institutional Development and Capacity Building Assessments.

His experience in the private sector includes functioning as the Director Business Development of the John Keells Holdings Group, Partner and Head of Consulting, with PricewaterhouseCoopers Sri Lanka, and as a Manager, with the Big 4 firms, Deloitte, in The Bahamas. He has extensive experience in Business Diagnoses and Strategic Redirection, Corporate turnarounds, New project evaluation, Privatisation-related Diagnoses, Valuations, Bidding, Acquisitions and Divestments.

He is a Fellow of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, and a holder of a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania, USA. He has also studied Multinational Corporations and Political Risk Analysis at the University’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

Appointed to the Board

On 9 February 2015.

Membership of Board Subcommittees

Chairman of the Board Audit Committee.

Current Appointments

He was appointed a Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka in February 2015.

Previous Key Appointments

Chairman, Monitoring and Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Power & Energy; Member of the first Consumer Affairs Council under the first Consumer Affairs Authority Act; Member, Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board; Commissioner, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka; Member, Governing Council, National Institute of Business Management; Member, Board of Management, Postgraduate Institute of Management; Member, Main Committee, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce; Advisor, Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka and Advisor, SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He is a Past President of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and a Past President of the 23 Nation Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants. He was a long serving Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Board Audit Committee, from 2005 to July 2016, of John Keels Hotels PLC which owned and operated a hotel chain comprising 11 properties in Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

Mr Charitha N Wijewardane

Independent Non-Executive Director
Skills and Experience

Mr Wijewardane is an Engineer by profession. His strength lies in effective channel operations in diverse cultures and subcultures. He holds a BSc (Hons) Degree in Digital Electronics and Communications from the University of Hull, UK.

Appointed to the Board

On 05 November 2015.

Membership of Board Subcommittees

Chairman of the Board Integrated Risk Management Committee, member of the Audit Committee and Human Resources and Remuneration Committee.

Current Appointments

Director of Faceforward (Private) Limited, Emjay Group Holdings Company (Private) Limited and Global Facilitators (Private) Limited, Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka & Finance PLC, BOC Travels (Private) Limited, MBSL Insurance Company Limited, Hotels Colombo (1963) Limited and John Keells PLC.

He is currently into other areas of business involving agriculture, engineering, power generation and mineral industry.

Previous Key Appointments

Country General Manager for IBM World Trade Corporation, Sri Lanka. Headed mass marketing programmes in IBM’s Asia Pacific Group Head Quarters in Hong Kong and IBM ASEAN operations in Singapore. He was also Regional Manager at Lexmark International’s, Asia Pacific operations based in Sydney, Australia, spearheading distribution and service operations in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, the Maldives and New Zealand.

Mr Sanjaya Padmaperuma

Independent Non-Executive Director
Skills and Experience

Mr Padmaperuma is a Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of South Asian Technologies and has wide experience in the IT field. He holds a BSc in Business Administration from Western Carolina University, North Carolina with a major in Computer Information Systems.

Appointed to the Board

On 05 November 2015.

Membership of Board Subcommittees

Member of the Board Integrated Risk Management Committee, Audit Committee and Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee.

Current Appointments

Director of Transcend Technologies (Private) Limited, Safe Project (Private) Limited, Curo Networks (Private) Limited, Koladeniya Hydropower (Private) Limited, Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation Limited and the Jellybean Foundation.

Previous Key Appointments

Director of Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka & Finance PLC and a Director/General Manager of Ceylinco Networking Technologies (Private) Limited.

Mr H P Ajith Gunawardana

Independent Non-Executive Director
Skills and Experience

Mr Gunawardana is a Government Treasury Bond market specialist with experience in equity markets and fund management. He also brings Corporate Governance experience having sat on a number of listed company Boards. He has over 25 years experience in the financial sector. He holds a Diploma in Business Administration and Chartered Financial Analyst – Part II.

Appointed to the Board

On 06 November 2015.

Membership of Board Subcommittees

Chairman of the Board Human Resources and Remuneration Committee, member of the Integrated Risk Management Committee and Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee.

Current Appointments

Director of Lanka Securities (Private) Limited.

Previous Key Appointments

Director of Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka & Finance PLC and a Director/Chief Executive Officer of Janashakthi Securities Limited. Director of Kshatriya Holdings PLC, First Capital Holdings PLC, Kelsey Homes PLC and Kotmale Holdings PLC.

 

Ms Janaki Senanayake Siriwardane

Secretary, Bank of Ceylon/ Secretary to the Board
Skills and Experience

Counting over 21 years of experience in the Bank, Ms Siriwardane specialises in Company secretarial work and corporate governance practices.

Ms Siriwardane is an Attorney-at-Law by profession and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Law. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Appointment to the Corporate Management

Ms Siriwardane was appointed to the Corporate Management in October 2010.

Positions Held During the Year

She is the Company Secretary of Ceybank Holiday Homes (Private) Limited and BOC Management & Support Services (Private) Limited.

Career Milestones

Ms Siriwardane joined the Bank in January 1996 as its Assistant Secretary to the Board. She was appointed as Secretary, Bank of Ceylon/Secretary to the Board in November 2005.

In addition to her work as the Secretary, Bank of Ceylon/Secretary to the Board, she serves as the Secretary to all the Subcommittees of the Board. She facilitates Bank’s compliance with the Corporate Governance Rules and Practices.

Prior to joining Bank of Ceylon, she practiced as an Attorney-at-Law in the private Bar. She also worked in several private sector companies handling company secretarial work including IPOs, mergers etc., and carried out legal and human resource work. She was a visiting Lecturer in Commercial and Industrial Law at the Industrial Management Department of the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.

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