Janaki Kuruppu joins Commercial Credit and Finance Board

Friday, 4 August 2023 00:32 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Dr. Janaki Kuruppu

Top professional Dr. Janaki Kuruppu has been appointed as an Independent Non-Executive Director on the Board of Commercial Credit and Finance Plc.

Dr. Kuruppu has specific experience in the finance sector which includes being the first Chairperson of the Regional Development Bank which she set up in 2010 by merging six provincial level banks with over 250 branches, former Director on the Board of Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC, a Director of Sarvodaya Development Finance PLC for seven years and CBC Finance Ltd. for nine years.

Starting her career as an entrepreneur, Dr. Kuruppu was singlehandedly responsible for bringing Nielsen to Sri Lanka by inviting them to invest in her market research company SMART and spearheaded it to become the largest market research company of that time as its first CEO/Managing Director. Thereafter, she served the Cargills Group as the Group Director – Strategic Planning and Business Development.

After an illustrious career in the private sector, she served the public sector for seven years in an advisory capacity. Her tenure in the Public Service is marked with many milestones. Namely, she has the distinct honour of being the first Chairperson of the Regional Development Bank and the first female Chairperson of the Sri Lanka Tea Board.

She also founded the Mother Sri Lanka, a non-profit organisation to pioneer proactive participation in nation building.

Dr. Kuruppu was also an Adviser to the cabinet Sub Committee for Food Security and Cost of Living Management, Director of the Co-operative Wholesale Establishment, Commercial Bank, Colombo Dockyard and a Director of the Presidential Secretariat. In addition to being awarded over seven awards both locally and internationally for her performance, Dr. Kuruppu is also the only Asian to be appointed to the Steering Committee of AgriFin, a joint project of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank for agriculture financing.

She holds a PhD from the University of Colombo, an M.A. in Statistics and a B.Sc in Mathematics from the University of Missouri, USA. At present, Dr. Kuruppu is the Chairperson of Mother Lanka Foundation, runs her own business ventures and also works as a freelance business strategy and development consultant while serving as a member of many corporate boards.

With the latest appointment the Board of Commercial Credit and Finance Plc comprises Bandula Egodage (Chairman), R.S. Egodage (Managing Director), F.A.P.L. Solbani, Rajiv Cassie Chitty, L.L.S. Wickramasinghe, T.M.L. Paktsun, G.A.M. Edwards, D. Malfar, G.R. Egodage, W.D. Barnabas and J.P. Kuruppu.