Board of Directors

Chairperson

Ms. Sherin Cader is the Chief Financial Officer of the Financial Services Sector of John Keells Holdings PLC (JKH). She has been with the JKH Group since 1998, serving in many capacities across multiple sectors. She has played diverse roles across finance and operations in Financial Services, IT Enabled Service sector and JKH Centre functions. She functioned as the Financial Controller at John Keells Holdings PLC from 2009 till 2012. Subsequently she took on the role of General Manager - Finance and Planning at Union Assurance PLC until her current role within the financial services sector of JKH. She is a Chartered Accountant from Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA-UK).

Director / Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Hemantha is a career banker with extensive international banking experience in Corporate Banking, Credit Risk and International Trade Finance.

He started his career at Standard Chartered Bank, Colombo in 1997 and subsequently moved to HSBC where he held leadership positions such as Head of Commercial Banking, Colombo, Country Head, Maldives and Global Head of Lending Product Management - Global Commercial Banking, Hong Kong.

Mr. Hemantha joined Nations Trust Bank in 2016 to lead Corporate Banking and was later appointed Deputy CEO in 2020. Since then, he has been leading the bank’s Consumer Banking and Commercial Banking businesses.

An alumnus of Royal College Colombo, Hemantha holds a BSc in Management Science from University of Warwick, UK and a BSc in Financial Services from the University of Manchester, UK. He is also an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (ACIB), UK.

Independent Non Executive Director

Mr. Conrad D’Souza currently serves as a Member of the Executive Management and Chief Investor Relations Officer of Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited (HDFC), a leading housing Finance Company in India. He has been with HDFC since 1984.

In HDFC Mr. D’Souza is responsible for strategy, corporate planning and budgeting, corporate finance and investor relations, wholesale lending to corporate and other non individual entities. He had held the position of Treasurer of HDFC for nine years and responsibilities included fund management, investments, resource mobilisation both domestic and international, asset liability management and investor relations. He has been associated with HDFC’s international funding from the multilateral agencies and in the international syndicate loan markets and the Floating Rate Note issue of July 2002 won the IFR Asia India Capital Markets Deal of the year for 2002. He also managed HDFC’s US $ 500 million Foreign Currency Convertible Bond issue which was the largest issue out of Asia in 2005.

He serves on the Boards of HDFC Investments Ltd., India, HDFC Education And Development Services Pvt. Ltd., India, HDFC Holdings Ltd., India, HDFC Sales Pvt. Ltd., India, Chalet Hotels Pvt. Ltd., India, Kooh Sports Pvt. Ltd., India, Association of Finance Professionals of India (AFPI), HDFC Sales Pvt. Ltd., India and Housing Development Finance Corporation plc, Maldives. He has been a consultant to USAID / UNDP and IFC (Washington) and has undertaken assignments in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe.This gentleman has a Master’s Degree in Commerce, a Master’s Degree in Business Administration and is a Senior Executive Program (SEP) graduate of the London Business School.

Independent Non Executive Director

Ms. Rajapaksa was the Chief Financial Officer of IBM World Trade Corporation. Immediately prior to joining IBM she was employed at Ceybank Asset Management Company Ltd. Having started her career at Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Sri Lanka, she counts over 24 years of work experience in the fields of fund management, accounting, budgeting and planning, treasury management, taxation, audit, management consultancy and general administration.

Furthermore, she is qualified as a Chartered Financial Analyst and is a Fellow Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, United Kingdom.

Independent Non Executive Director

Mr. Russell De Mel is a professional accountant with over 20 years experience in development banking including project financing, SME financing and merchant Banking, and around 9 years of experience in commercial and investment Banking. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants of UK (FCMA), Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) and Fellow of the Certified Management Accountants of Sri Lanka (FCMA).

Mr. De Mel has served in the National Development Bank (NDB) and Group as the Director/ CEO and the Group CEO from March 2010 to August 2013. Prior to that he has held the positions of Vice President – Group Risk Management and Vice President of Corporate Banking Group of NDB.

He has also served on the Boards of over 25 listed and non listed companies over a period of 25 years, covering a wide range of sectors, i.e. Industry, Food & Beverage, Banking & Finance, Insurance & Capital Markets, Healthcare, Hospitality & Tourism, Plantations, Education & Communication, both within and outside NDB Group, and within and outside Sri Lanka. He currently serves on the Boards of TAL Lanka Hotels PLC, EAP Holdings (Pvt) Ltd., EAP Broadcasting Ltd., EAP Films and Theatres Ltd. and Singer Finance Lanka PLC.

Independent Non Executive Director

Mr. Chanaka Wickramasuriya is currently the Joint Managing Partner of Ironwood Capital Partners. Prior to that, in 2012, he was the Managing Partner of LR Global Lanka Private Equity Fund and was a Partner and the Global Portfolio Manager of Aureos Capital Limited from 2000 to 2005 and 2009 to 2011, respectively. For the period from 2006 to 2009 he was the Country Head of Fitch Ratings Lanka Limited, Colombo. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) from the CFA Institute of Charlottesville, USA.

Non Executive Director

Mr. Arjun Fernando is a professional banker with over 30 years’ experience in banking, finance and business administration. He was the Chief Executive Officer/ (Ex-Officio) Director of DFCC Bank from October 2013 to August 2017. During this period, he also functioned as Chairman/Director of many of DFCC’s subsidiaries and was the Bank’s Nominee Director on the Boards of the Credit Information Bureau of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Banks Association. He has also served as the Chief Operating Officer of HSBC Sri Lanka, Chief Technology and Services Officer of HSBC Bangladesh and also as Regional Head of Change Delivery, Commercial Banking, Trade & Supply Chain – Asia Pacific of HSBC Hong Kong. He holds an MSc in Management from Clemson University of South Carolina and is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (U.K.)

Non Executive Director

Dr. Shanmuganathan is an Executive Vice President and the Group Chief Information Officer of the John Keells Group with over of 25 years of experience. His work with the John Keells Group has been focused on business-led digital and IT strategies and execution across the Group including subsidiaries such as John Keells IT and John Keells X. Dr. Shanmuganathan is a Hayes-Fulbright Scholar and is currently reading for his Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) at the International School of Management, Paris. He also holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Technology Management from Keisei International University in Seoul, South Korea. Dr. Shanmuganathan started his academic career at the University of Moratuwa, graduating with First Class Honours in Bachelor of Science in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering. He then pursued a Masters in Business Administration from Postgraduate Institute of Management, University of Sri Jayewardenepura and a Masters of Science, Information Technology and Computer Science from Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, USA, where he graduated with Phi Kappa Phi Honours. He is also a Chartered Engineer and Chartered IT Professional and a Fellow of the British Computer Society and Institute of Engineers, UK. 

Non Executive Director

Nations Trust Bank PLC appointed Mr. Chandika Kushan Hettiarachchi as a Non Executive Director of the Bank with effect from today, 05^th January 2022. Director, Bank Supervision of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka has approved the appointment in terms of Section 42 of the Banking Act. 

Mr. C. K. Hettiarachchi is a professional having 23 years of experience in Financial Services sector specially in credit and leasing related areas which includes over 20 years at Central Finance Company PLC. He  serves as an Executive Director (Director Marketing) on the Board of  Central Finance Company PLC (CFC) since June 2018. Mr. Hettiarachchi also a serves on the Boards of three subsidiary companies of CFC namely CF Insurance Brokers Limited, Central Transport and Travels Limited and CF Growth Fund. 

Mr Hettiarachchi has carried out many assignments for International Development Agencies as a Consultant including International Finance Corporation (IFC). 

Mr Hettiarachchi is an Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants of UK (ACMA), Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) and a passed finalist of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, UK. He holds a Master of Business Administration Degree from the University of Wales, UK.

Non Executive Director

Dr. Sanjeev Jha has over three decades of extensive experience in business leadership, strategy and overall business operations. He currently serves as a Non-Executive Director on the Boards of Paramount Health Care Services & Insurance TPA, Maxop Engineering Company Pvt Ltd and Jaynix Engineering Pvt Ltd. He is on the advisory Board of CamCom Technologies (Pvt) Ltd and Symbo Platform, India. He also serves as a consultant to Fairfax Asia Limited which is a subsidiary of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited. He serves as a member of the industry advisory panel for the Birla Institute of Management Technology. He served as the CEO and Managing Director of Fairfirst Insurance Limited, Sri Lanka unill April 2021. Dr. Jha is a Fulbright Scholar in Leadership Management from Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business, USA. He holds BA, Economics from St. Xavier’s Collage, MA Economics from University of Mumbai and Ph.D, Economics, University of Mumbai.

Non Executive Director

Mr. Charitha Subasinghe is President–Retail of the John Keells Group since 2018. The Retail sector of John Keells comprises of the Keells supermarket chain consisting of 132 outlets and John Keells Office Automation, the national distributor for Samsung phones, Asus laptops and Toshiba photocopiers. The Keells brand transformation took place under the leadership of Mr. Subasinghe and it went on to become the strongest brand in the country for the year 2022 based on the Brand Finance rankings.

With over 25 years of experience in the fields of accounting, financial management and marketing, Mr. Subasinghe holds an MBA from the University of Colombo, is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (ACMA), UK and holds a Diploma from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK.

Independent Non-Executive Director

Mr. Arjuna Kumar Wignaraja is a professional with three decades of experience in the fields of business strategy, private equity investment, entrepreneurship, and governance.  He commenced his career at the Boston Consulting Group, and then spent two decades at advisory firm Stax before joining Cerberus Frontier, an investment fund.

Mr. Wignaraja currently serves as a Partner and Director at Good Life X (Pvt) Ltd, a catalyst for circular and regenerative growth. He also serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director in multiple companies including Asia Securities and related entities, Bartleet & Company, and Cenmetrix (Pvt) Ltd.  He is also an advisor to the Board of Medihelp and Xebiro Group.  

Mr. Wignaraja holds Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the Princeton University, USA and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, USA.