1. D.S. Weerakkody

Chairman

Dinesh Weerakkody joined the Board of Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC on July 29, 2005. Prior to his appointment as the Chairman on December 30, 2011, he was the Deputy Chairman of the Bank and the Chairman of the Board Audit Committee.

Dinesh is a former Chairman/CEO of the Employees’ Trust Fund Board of Sri Lanka and was a Director of DFCC Bank PLC. He was also Advisor to the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 2002-2004. He has served in many Cabinet Sub-Committees and national level committees on Economic Affairs, International Affairs and Labour Management. During his Public Sector career, he engaged proactively and innovatively in economic, trade, labour and cultural matters in both bilateral and multilateral contexts.

From 2005-2009, he was a Council Member and during 2008-2009 he functioned as Chairman, Employer Relations, CIMA Sri Lanka Division.

He is a Graduate in Business Administration, an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, United Kingdom, a Fellow of the Certified Management Accountants of Sri Lanka, and Professional Member of the Singapore Human Resource Institute and has a MBA from the University of Leicester, England. He has received extensive Leadership, HR and Management Training in the UK, USA, France, Japan, Singapore and India. Dinesh has been on the Sri Lankan Board of GlaxoSmithKline Sri Lanka since 2000 and is the Chairman of Cornucopia Lanka Ltd. and Director/Advisor of Cornucopia Bangalore, India. He presently serves and had served in many Government and Private Sector Boards. He is also a Vice-President of the International Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka Chapter and a Vice-President of Sri Lanka Tennis Association.

Dinesh has published widely on HR, Leadership, Management, International Relations and Development issues. He has been involved in large scale research projects in the USA and has presented many papers at national and international level. He is a recipient of two national awards.

He holds 26,452 Voting Shares and 12,220 Non-Voting shares.

 

2. K.G.D.D. Dheerasinghe

Deputy Chairman

Dharma Dheerasinghe, an eminent Economist with a distinguished career of over 39 years in the banking industry was first appointed to the Board on December 20, 2011 and was appointed as the Deputy Chairman of the Bank on December 30, 2011. He is also the Chairman of Board Integrated Risk Management Committee, Board Credit Committee and Board Investment Committee.

Previously he was the Senior Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and was also the Chairman of the Monetary Policy Committee, Sovereign Ratings Committee and Secretary to the Monetary Board. He was also the Alternate Executive Director for Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka at the International Monetary Fund.

He has been an independent Non-Executive Chairman of Bartleet Finance PLC, since January 2012. Dheerasinghe has published widely on many aspects of economics including debt capital markets and financial globalisation and has over 30 referred articles in reputed journals and as book chapters in Sri Lanka and overseas. He has presented more than 50 papers at international seminars. He has been a Visiting Lecturer and Moderator/Examiner in Universities of Colombo, Kelaniya, Sri Jayewardenepura and Moratuwa and several professional bodies in Sri Lanka. He has made a significant contribution to the development of the Government debt securities market by innovating and structuring key financial instruments and developing its institutional framework.

He is a graduate of the University of Colombo where he obtained B.Com and B.Phil (Econ.) with first class honours. He has obtained M.A.(Econ.) from the University of Leeds, UK. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka and holder of Honorary ACI Diploma.

He holds 20,334 Voting Shares.

 

3. W.M.R.S. Dias

Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer

Ravi Dias was first appointed to the Board on December 14, 2010. He was appointed as the Managing Director/CEO of the Bank on April 27, 2012. Prior to that, he functioned as the Chief Operating Officer of the Bank from February 2008 to March 2012.

He possesses substantial professional experience in Banking, out of which 18 years was as a member of Corporate Management. He holds a Degree in Law (LL.B.) and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (UK). He is also a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow.

He is a Council Member of the the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon and is also a Committee Member of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and Chairs the Banking Finance & Capital Markets Steering Committee, a Sub-Committee of the Chamber.

He functions as the Managing Director of Commercial Development Company PLC, a Subsidiary of the Bank and also serves on the Boards of Lanka Clear (Pvt) Ltd., and Lanka Financial Services Bureau Ltd.

He holds 696,594 Voting Shares.

 

4. Prof. U.P. Liyanage

Prof. Uditha Liyanage was first appointed to the Board on December 14, 2010. He is the Chairman of the Board Technology Committee.

He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK and holds an MBA and a Ph.D. in Business Management from the Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM), University of Sri Jayewardenepura. He is a Director of Chemanex PLC, Kuruwita Textile Mills PLC, Diesel & Motor Engineering PLC, Richard Pieris & Co. (Plastic Sector), Ceylon Cold Stores PLC and Talawakelle Tea Estate PLC. He is presently the Professor of Management of the PIM. He counts 18 years executive experience in 3 leading private sector organisations. He possesses 20 years of teaching/research experience in Marketing/Management at postgraduate level. He has published widely on branding and strategic marketing and addressed numerous local and international conferences.

 

5. L. Hulugalle

Lakshman Hulugalle was first appointed to the Board on March 30, 2011.

He is the Director General of the NGO and INGO Secretariat of the Ministry of Defence, Deputy Chairman of National Livestock Development Board and Director of Waters Edge Hotel PLC. He is also the Advisor to the Provincial Council of Sabaragamuwa. He is a degree holder (Hotel Management) of the Sri Lanka Hotel School. He has followed a diploma course in Advertising, Sales and Marketing at the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing.

He has also served as the Director General of Media Centre for National Security (2006-2013), Vice-Chairman of Ceylon Fisheries Corporation (2006-2010), Consultant to the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Sports and Rural Development (1995), Co-ordinating Secretary to Hon. Mahinda Rajapaksa, Minister of Labour and Vocational Training (1994), Co-ordinating Secretary of Hon. Gamini Dissanayake at the Ministry of Lands, Land Development and Ministry of Mahaweli Development (1978-1989) and Ministry of Plantations (1989-1990). He was the Former Chairman of Satnet (Pvt) Ltd., and Star TV Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. (2001-2005). He has also represented the Government of Sri Lanka in many international conferences and workshops.

 

6. M.P. Jayawardena

Preethi Jayawardena was first appointed to the Board on December 28, 2011.

He is a Fellow of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka. He serves as the Group Consultant at Chemanex PLC and a Group Director of CIC Holdings PLC. He is also the Chairman of The Finance Company PLC and serves on the Boards of many other public and private companies. Prior to joining Chemanex PLC, he served in Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines in Africa for over 13 years in various senior positions including Head of Treasury, managing a loan portfolio in excess of US$ 2 Bn.

He is a Member of the Monetary Policy Consultative Committee of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the Vice-Chairman of the Sri Lanka Institute of Directors.

 

7. S. Swarnajothi

S. Swarnajothi was first appointed to the Board in August 20, 2012. He is the Chairman of the Board Audit Committee.

He is a Fellow of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and a Fellow of the Certified Management Accountants of Sri Lanka and also a member of the Institute of Certified Management Accountants of Australia. He holds a BSc Degree in Management from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and a Msc in Project Management from the University of Moratuwa.

Swarnajothi held office as Auditor General of Sri Lanka from January 2008 to August 2010 and prior to that held many senior positions in the Public Sector as well as in the Private Sector. He currently functions as the Project Director of the Public Sector Capacity Building Project which position he had held since September 2010.

He holds 8,332 Non-Voting Shares.

 

8. J. Durairatnam

Jegan Durairatnam was first appointed to the Board on April 28, 2012. Since April 2012 he functions as the Chief Operating Officer of the Bank. He possesses substantial professional experience in Banking, out of which 8 years as a member of Corporate Management. His Banking experience covers all aspects of International Trade, Off-shore Banking, Credit, Operations and Information Technology. He has served the Bank in several management positions, including Deputy General Manager, Assistant General Manager - International Division and Head of Imports. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Peradeniya.

He holds 344,336 Voting Shares.

 

9. Mrs. R.R. Dunuwille

Company Secretary

Mrs. Dunuwille, an Attorney-at-Law and a Chartered Secretary (UK) was appointed as the Company Secretary of Commercial Bank in 1998. She has received extensive training on secretarial and legal fields.