New Board of Directors assumes office to steer National Savings Bank

A new Board of Directors has been appointed for National Savings Bank (NSB) recently. 

The new Board consists of the Chairperson, Keasila Jayawardane, who also has been appointed recently, the Post Master General, Ranjith Ariyaratne, Dr. Kapila Senanayake, Brigadier (Dr.) Thiran De Silva, Manohari Abeyesekera and Eranga Jayawardane. 

Keasila Jayawardane has been appointed as the Chairperson and a member of the Board of Directors of NSB on 26 December 2019. Having graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science at the University of Peradeniya she has commenced her career as a lecturer in Political Science at the same university. Afterwards, she has served as the Chairperson, Kandurata Development Bank and later became a member of the Central Provincial Council. She has also served as the Chairperson of the Regional Development Bank previously. She holds a Master of Arts Degree in Political Science from the University of Peradeniya. 

As the Postmaster General is appointed as a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank as per the Statute of NSB, Ranjith Ariyaratne, who has been serving in the capacity of the Postmaster General since August 2018 continued to be a member of the Board of Directors. Ariyaratne have served in the Senior Management level as a civil servant in an array of Government Institutions including Divisional Secretaries and Ministries throughout a duration of more than 20 years. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree, Master’s Degree in Sociology and a Post Graduate Diploma in Regional Planning from the University of Kelaniya and a Post Graduate Diploma in Education from the University of Peradeniya.  

Dr. Kapila Senanayake currently works as the Director General, Department of Fiscal Policy, Ministry of Finance, Economic and Policy Development. He has previously served as the Director, Deputy Director (Actg) and Assistant Director of the same Department after working as an Assistant Director, Department of National Planning, Ministry of Finance and Planning. 

He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of New South Wales, Australia, Master of Public Policy from Graduate School of Business Strategy, Hitotsubashi University, Japan, Bachelor of Commerce (Special Degree, 2nd Class (Upper) from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and Advanced Diploma in Management and Administration from Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration and Sri Lanka Foundation Institute.

Brigadier (Dr.) Thiran De Silva (Rtd) who presently serves as the Chairman/CEO of Celata Tech Ltd. has previously worked as the Director, MBSL Savings Bank, Director, MCSL Financial Services Ltd., City Housing and Real Estate PLC, Trillium Residencies Ltd., Director General, Centre for Research and Development, Ministry of Defence, Founder and Head, Defence Cyber Security Operation Centre, CIO/Head of IT, National Savings Bank, IT Advisor, MBSL Bank, IT Advisor, SMIB Bank, Director/IT, Sri Lanka Army, Head of IT/GIS, Centre for Research and Development, Ministry of Defence and Group General Manager/Tec Group of Companies. 

He holds a PhD in Business Administration from the Central Queensland University, Australia, Master of Information Technology from Charles Sturt University, Australia, Bachelor of Information Technology (Hons) from Swinburne University of Technology, Australia, Microsoft Certified Professional on Server Management, Microsoft Corporation, USA and Certified Artificial Neural Networks on Artificial Intelligence from the University of Colombo. He is currently reading for PhD in Geo Informatics from the University of Peradeniya. 

Brigadier (Dr.) De Silva is the youngest Brigadier in the Sri Lanka military history, the youngest officer appointed as a Director of Sri Lanka Army and the youngest person who has served in the capacity of Director General at the Ministry of Defence.   

Manohari Abeyesekera, who has served in varying capacities at Hayleys PLC, Director, Fentons Ltd. and Financial Controller, Oasis Hospitals Ltd. presently works as the Director, Hayleys Group Services Ltd. She is the former Chairperson of the Country Network Panel, CIMA Sri Lanka and President, MBA Alumni Association. She holds a Bachelor of Science – B.Sc. (First Class Honours) Degree, Master of Business Administration (MBA) in the University of Colombo, and a Post Graduate Diploma in International Relations conducted by the Bandaranaike International Diplomatic Training Institute. She is also a Fellow of Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICASL). Eranga Jayewardene currently serves as CEO of Giga Foods Ltd. Prior to this he served as Director Digitalisation at MAS Intimates Ltd. since 2017 with an overall career at MAS spanning 9.5 years. During his tenure he played various leadership roles across the organisation as Chief Executive Officer Silueta, General Manager/Director MAS Innovations and General Manager –Sourcing and Supply Chain MAS Intimates. 

Jayewardene was employed at Apple Inc. Cupertino, CA, USA as Senior Manager and he started his career at Cisco Systems, San Jose, CA, USA. He is a Graduate of Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA (2005) where he obtained a Master of Science (Msc.) in Electrical Engineering as the first Sri Lankan to be awarded the Bill and Melinda Gates Fellowship. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. 

Jayewardene is a published author and his research papers have been presented at the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) annual international symposiums.