BOC gets four new high-profile directors
Four new high-profile Nonexecutive Directors have been appointed to the board of Bank of Ceylon (BOC). They are Visakha Amarasekere, Lalith P. Withana, Harsha Wijayawardhana and Hasitha Premaratne.
Ameresekere, whose appointment came into effect from January 11, 2020, is the representative of the Finance Ministry on the BOC board as ex-officio Non-executive Director.
Withana was appointed to the BOC board with effect from January 14, 2020, as a Non-executive Director. Withana is currently Chief Executive Officer at Srilankan Catering Ltd.
He has held management positions in the corporate sector for over 25 years, in which he had been at senior management levels for more than 18 years in banking, manufacturing and trade.
He has worked with many organisations including the Brandix group, Ernst & Young, Chartered Accountants, Amsterdam Rotterdam (Amro) Bank, IBM World Trade Corporation, Carson Cumberbatch PLC, MJF Group, Yamaha Corporation (USA) and Srilankan Airlines.
He also functions as a member of the Advisory Board for the School of Apparel Merchandising and Management, at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, USA.
He is currently a Co-chairman of the Finance Committee of the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka and is a Vice President of the Project Management Institute, Sri Lanka Chapter.
He had previously served as an Independent Non-executive Director on the boards of BOC, Dankotuwa Porcelain PLC, Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka PLC, Ceylease Limited and Seylan Bank PLC.
Withana had also been a Commissioner of the
Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.
Withana holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) Degree from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) Hons. Degree from the University of Manchester Metropolitan, UK.
He is a fellow member of both the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (FCMA), UK and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (FCA). He is also a Project Management Professional at the Project Management Institute (PMI), USA.
Wijayawardhana is a biochemist-turned information and communication technology (ICT) consultant with more than 20 years of experience in hardcore LCT.
He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree majoring in Biochemistry and Chemistry and Minor in Mathematics from the University of Miami, USA and is also a Professional Fellow of the British Computer Society (FBCS).
He has been involved in government ICT projects and has designed and implemented government networks such as Foreign Affairs Ministry and Information Department of Sri Lanka.
He was responsible for setting up of the Software Development Unit (SDU) of the University of Colombo and is COO/CTO of Theekshana, a company which is associated with the University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC).
He was also responsible for some of the major national level software projects such as the birth, marriage and death certificate issuance system and householder list set up at every Divisional Secretariat. He is also involved in developing an Electronic Government Procurement System (EGP) with the Public Finance Department of the Finance Ministry.
Wijayawardhana was appointed as ICT Consultant to the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRCSL) of Sri Lanka in January 2014.
He served on the board of directors of Lanka Government Information Infrastructure (LGII), from 2010 to 2015. He is also a Board Member of nic.lk (LK Domain Registry) since its inception. He was the founding president of ISOC LK Chapter. He is Co-chair of Sinhala Generation Panel of ICANN.
He has been recognised as one of the Internet Pioneers in Sri Lanka in 2015 and was honoured by Lanka Education and Research Network (LEARN) as one of the seven founding members of LEARN, at its 30-year celebrations.
Wijayawardhana has published several scientific papers and authored several books.
Premaratne is Group Finance Director of the Brandix group. He leads the overall finance function of the group and is also responsible for strategy and long-range planning.
He is Managing Director of Brandix India Apparel City and overlooks all joint ventures and investments of the Brandix group. He is a Director of many subsidiaries of the Brandix group, including listed company Teejay Lanka PLC.
He was formerly Head of Research at HNB Stockbrokers (Pvt.) Ltd and possesses plenty of experience in the fields of capital markets, economics, strategic finance, management and research.
His lecturing experience expands for 11 years, for CIMA (UK), ACCA (UK) examinations, in Sri Lanka, India, Singapore and the Philippines.
He was a board member of CIMA Sri Lanka during 2016. He is presently a Committee Member of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and a board member of the Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board.
He holds an MBA in International Finance and a BSC in Computer Science. He is a Fellow Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), UK Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), UK and Institute of Certified Management Accountants (CMA), Sri Lanka.
He is also a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA).
Premaratne was the winner of the Tutor of The Year Award at CIMA Global Financial Management Awards 2009, held in London during November 2009. He was the winner and Gold medallist of the prestigious CIMA Star of the Year award in 2012 and the Winner of Young CIMA Star of the Year award, in 2006.