Dinesh Weerakkody new Chairman at Union Bank

Top professional and banking sector specialist Dinesh Weerakkody has been appointed as the new Chairman of Union Bank of Colombo.

He fulfils the vacancy created by the resignation of Nirvana Chaudhary who however will continue to serve the Board as a Director.

Union Bank’s majority shareholding is held by Nepalese and Forbes-listed billionaire Binod Choudhary via Culture Financial Holdings Ltd., which holds 70.84% stake.

Weerakkody is a former Chairman of both Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC and Hatton National Bank PLC and has also served on the Board of DFCC Bank PLC. In 2015, he chaired the Government-appointed committee tasked with reviewing the consolidation of banks and non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs).

Weerakkody is a director of several companies and the Chairman of the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon. He has held senior leadership roles in the public sector as well. He holds an Advanced Diploma in Business Administration from the United Kingdom and is a Fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (United Kingdom) and the Certified Management Accountants (Sri Lanka). Additionally, he was a Professional Member of the Singapore Human Resource Institute and holds an honorary DBA from USA, as well as an MBA from the University of Leicester, United Kingdom. He was also conferred honorary membership by the Institute of Personnel Management of Sri Lanka. 

Weerakkody has undergone extensive leadership, economic and finance, HR, and management training in the UK, USA, France, Japan, Singapore, and India.