Dhanapala quits Cargills Board to take up Senior Presidential Advisor role

Wednesday, 14 January 2015 00:34 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Top diplomat Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala has resigned from the Cargills (Ceylon) Plc Board to take up the position of Senior Advisor on Foreign Relations to President Maithripala Sirisena with effect from 12 January.

Cargills said the Board reluctantly accepted Dr. Dhanapala’s resignation and expressed its appreciation of his services as an Independent Non-executive Director and the loyalty and support extended to the company and his colleagues over the past six and half years. Cargills also wished him well. Dhanapala is a former United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs (1998-2003) and a former Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the USA (1995-1997) and to the UN Office in Geneva (1984-1987). He was Director of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) from 1987-1992. As a Sri Lankan diplomat, Dhanapala served in London, Beijing, Washington D.C., New Delhi and Geneva and represented Sri Lanka at many international conferences, chairing several of them. He is currently the President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs; a member of the Governing Board of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and several other advisory boards of international bodies.