Nihal Jayawardene PC appointed to HNB Board

Hatton National Bank yesterday announced the appointment of Nihal Jayawardene PC as a Non-Executive Non-Independent Director with effect from 17 August.

He is serving the academic staff of the Sri Lanka Law College as a Senior Lecturer and the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. In recognition of the contribution made to the legal profession as an eminent Counsel in Corporate and Commercial Law, Public Law, and Aviation Law, Jayawardene was appointed President’s Counsel in the year 2012.

Jayawardene functioned as a member of the team of legal consultants who assisted the Public Enterprises Reform Commission from 1996, became its Leader in 2003 and functioned in that capacity until retirement in May 2005. He participated in almost all leading restructuring programs of Government enterprises carried out by the Government from 1996 to 2005 including the privatisation of the national carrier Air Lanka, privatisation of certain sections of the Colombo Port, plantation, insurance and telecommunication sector Government enterprises. 

He also functioned as a Legal Consultant to the Department of Civil Aviation, the Civil Aviation Authority, the Ministry of Urban Development and the Ministry of Mass Media and Information. He was involved in the negotiation of numerous bilateral air services agreements with a large number of countries.

Jayawardene participated in the Company Law reforms process from May 1993 which resulted in the enactment of the Companies Act No. 7 of 2007. He was appointed as a Member of the Company Law Advisory Commission in August 1998 in which capacity he continued to serve until August 2008. 

In January 2020 he was appointed as the Chairman of the Company Law Advisory Commission. He participated actively in the drafting process of the Civil Aviation Authority Act of 2002 and the Civil Aviation Act of 2010, and the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Act No. 11 of 2021.

Jayawardene has previously served as a Director of Hotel Developers (Lanka) Ltd., the owning company of Colombo Hilton Hotel from 2004 to 2015, of Milco Ltd., Sri Lanka Libya Agricultural and Livestock Co. Ltd., People’s Leasing and Finance PLC and was the Director and the founder Chairman of Lanka Sathosa Ltd.He was also a Board Member of the Civil Aviation Authority from 2004 to 2013 and from December 2019 to-date.

Jayawardene is an Old Boy of St. Anthony’s College Kandy. He enrolled as an Attorney-at-Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka in November 1983 and joined the Attorney General’s Department in July 1984.

He was awarded the Master’s Degree in Public International Law by University College London in the 1990-91. He enrolled as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales in 1991.