Krishan Balendra youngest to be appointed as CSE Chairman

Young professional Krishan Balendra was appointed as the new Chairman of the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) yesterday.

The appointment was by the new Board of Directors duly elected at the CSE’s Annual General Meeting.

Krishan is responsible for JKH Group’s Retail sector, Corporate Finance and Strategy function as well as stock broking operations at John Keells Stock Brokers.

Sources said that there was no contest or another nominee for the post of Chairman and the appointment was unanimous. Krishan is the senior most member of the CSE Board (appointed in March 2008) whilst at 38 years of age he is the youngest Chairman of CSE.

He succeeded DFCC Bank CEO Nihal Fonseka representing Acuity Stockbrokers. Fonseka who assumed Chairmanship in 2006 will continue to serve on the CSE Board for some time.

The elected directors of the CSE Board are Krishan Balendra (Chairman), Nihal Fonseka, M.R. Prelis, Dr. Saman Kelegama, Vajira Kulatilaka. The latter three were re-elected.       

The four Government appointed members on CSE Board are Ashroff Omar, Dhakshitha T. W. Thalgodapitiya, Prof. Laksiri Fernando and Hiran M C de Alwis.

Krishan is the President and member of the Group Executive Committee of JKH. He is also a Director of Union Assurance and Nations Trust Bank. He started his career in investment banking at UBS Warburg Hong Kong and was at Aitken Spence and Co Plc., in corporate finance prior to joining JKH. He holds an LLB (University of London) and an MBA (INSEAD).

He is also the third from JKH Group to be appointed as Chairman of CSE with the previous two been V. Kailasipillai and the current Deputy Chairman Ajit Gunewardene. being the first.