Dushni Weerakoon appointed as new Executive Director of IPS

Dr. Dushni Weerakoon has been appointed as the Executive Director of the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS).

She succeeds renowned economist, late Dr. Saman Kelegama, who passed away in June this year.

Dr. Weerakoon has over 23 years of experience at the IPS, and has been functioning as its Deputy Director since 2005. Her research and publications cover areas related to macroeconomic policy, regional trade integration, and international economics.

Highly involved in the arena of public policy through her research and direct engagements in policy formulation, she has served as a member of the Macro and Trade Policy Steering Committee of the Ministry of Policy Development and Implementation (2002-2004), an official delegate to the Committee of Experts to negotiate the South Asian Free Trade Agreement under the Ministry of Trade and Commerce (2004-2005) and a member of the Trade and Tariff Committee of the National Council for Economic Development (NCED) of the Ministry of Finance (2004-2010).

She has worked as a consultant to international organizations such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the International Labour Organization (ILO), and as a resource person on the Asia-pacific Regional Trade Policy Course conducted jointly by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and University of Hong Kong (2003-2006).

Dr. Weerakoon also serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of South Asian Development, and is the Editor of IPS’ annual flagship report ‘Sri Lanka: State of the Economy’. She also served as an Independent Non-executive Director on the Board of the Nations Trust Bank (2007-2016), and Centre for Poverty Analysis (2008-2014).

She holds a BSC in Economics with First Class Honours from the Queen’s University of Belfast, UK, and an MA and PHD in Economics from the University of Manchester, UK. She is a recipient of the Arts Faculty Scholarship from the University of Colombo, the Mckane Medal and Scholarship from the Queen’s University of Belfast, a Postgraduate Scholarship from the University of Manchester, an Overseas Research Scholarship (ORS) from the Government of the UK, and the Drummond Frazer Research Studentship from the University of Manchester.