Ray appointed Chairman of Asia Siyaka

Top professional Ray Abeywardena has been appointed as the new Chairman of Asia Siyaka Commodities Plc., a 51% owned subsidiary of Royal Ceramics Plc.

Ray was previously an Independent Non Executive Director in the Company. Ray is also the Chairman of Acuity Stockbrokers Ltd., and serves on the Boards of Asian Alliance Plc., Lanka Ventures Plc., Acuity Securities Ltd., and Guardian Acuity Asset Management Ltd.

He accounts for over 25 years of work experience in the Capital Markets in Sri Lanka. He  holds a Master’s Degree on Business Administration from the University of Wales and he also a Post  Graduate Diploma holder in Marketing (CIM  – UK). He embarked his career path in the field of Stock  Broking (1986-2008)

Subsequently in 2009, he moved into Investment Banking. Presently he  is the Managing Director/Group CEO of Acuity Partners (Pvt) Ltd, a joint venture Investment Banking Firm  mutually owned by DFCC Bank PLC and Hatton National Bank PLC. The firm has been profitable from its  first year of operations (2009) and has continued to provide a higher return to the shareholders than  budgetary expectations.

Abeywardena was also worked as the Managing Director of DFCC Stockbrokers (Pvt) Ltd, which was  earlier known as Acuity Stockbrokers (Pvt) Ltd. During his tenure as the MD of Acuity Stockbrokers, it  was ranked as the number one Stock Broker in Sri Lanka in 2008 having established a strong and loyal  client base both locally and internationally and have been successful in executing some of the largest  trades took place on the Colombo Stock Exchange

The new appointment was following the resignation of Nimal Perera as Chairman and Director with effect from 10 December. However subsequent to this Nimal has been appointed as an alternate director on Asia Siayaka Board to the newly appointed Non Independent Non Executive Prashan B Perera. He is presently reading for his degree in finance at the Bentley University of Boston, USA.

Asia Siyaka also announced that Anil Cooke has been appointed as the Managing Director.

Additionally Neil T. Bogahalande, a Non Indepdent Non Executive Director has been appointed as an Executive Director. Haresh Somashantha, Head of Finance and Treasury at Royal Ceramics Lanka Plc and Chief Financial Officer of Vallibel ONe Plc has also been appointed as the alternate director to Tharana Thoradeniya.