Former NTB COO Thilak joins SANASA Development Bank as CEO

Veteran banker Thilak Piyadigama has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer/General Manager with effect from 1 March subject to the approval of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

Thilak Piyadigama

Piyadigama possess over 30 years of experience in the Banking and Technology Industries and he has spent a major part of his career in senior management roles in Singapore, UAE, UK and Sri Lanka with Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) and Nations Trust Bank (NTB) in Sri Lanka. His professional experience spans across Strategy, Banking Operations, Digital Transformation, Technology, Operational Risk, and Client Service.

He served as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at NTB recently and helped in transforming NTB to provide a seamless experience to the customers and staff by using cutting-edge technologies, frictionless processes, and customer friendly locations. Thilak was widely credited for launching FriMi, the first digital bank in Sri Lanka by NTB.

He is a board member of Lanka Financial Service Bureau and a Governing Council Member of National Institute of Business Management (NIBM).

Delivery of some strategic projects for SCB was a noteworthy achievement in his career. As the Director – Strategic Implementations, he spearheaded setting up operations in Afghanistan and Iran.

As Regional Head of IT-MESA, he played a significant role in rolling out core banking system in the MESA region and played the lead role in implementing reengineering of the IT service delivery model in MESA and transformed the way technology services delivered. He contributed immensely for centralisation initiatives when the SCB moved operations to hubs in Chennai and Kuala Lumpur. 

On the M&A front, he was responsible for managing key aspects of Grindlays Bank acquisition by SCB in Sri Lanka.

Prior to joining SCB, he had a successful career with John Keells Holdings Group in Sri Lanka.

He holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA) and he attended management development programs at INSEAD in France and at London Business School in the United Kingdom.