Prof. Asita de Silva joins Amana Takaful Life Board

Prof. Asita de Silva

Professor Asita de Silva has been appointed to the Board of Amana Takaful Life as an Independent Non-Executive Director.

Professor Asita de Silva has held many positions in academic medicine over the last 30 years. He is a Clinical Pharmacologist and is currently Senior Professor of Pharmacology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. 

Prof. de Silva graduated MBBS in 1991 from the North Colombo Medical College, Sri Lanka, and had his postgraduate training in clinical pharmacology at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford. He holds a doctorate in Clinical Pharmacology from the University of Oxford and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London. Prof. de Silva’s clinical research interests have focused on neglected tropical diseases and major non-communicable diseases with a major focus on developing cost-effective and scalable therapeutic interventions.

He serves on numerous international steering committees of large clinical trials on cardiovascular disease and has a prolific scientific publication record. He has received Presidential awards for medical research on numerous occasions and is included in the database of the world’s top 2% of scientists compiled by Stanford University. He was Chairman of the National Medicines Regulatory Authority in Sri Lanka from June 2016 to March 2021. In 2019, Prof. de Silva was awarded the titular honour ‘Vidya Jyothi’, Sri Lanka’s highest award for science.

With the latest appointment the Board of Directors of Amana Takaful Life PLC comprises Omar Kassim (Chairman), A.S. Kassim, S. Muhseen, M.H.S. Kassim, K.R. Ravindran, S. De Silva, S.M. Paranawithana and H.A. De Silva. CEO G. Rajapakse.