Asite Talwatte new Chairman at Central Finance from 1 July; Manjula de Silva joins Board

Top professional Asite Talwatte has been named as the Chairman of Central Finance PLC with effect from 1 July 2020 whilst financial services expert Manjula de Silva has been appointed to the Board as an Independent Non-Executive Director.

Asite Talwatte

Manjula de silva

The move follows the retirement of C.L.K.P. Jayasuriya, as Chairman and Independent Non-Executive Director with effect from 30 June 2020, upon the completion of a term of nine (09) years, in keeping with the provisions contained in Section 4(2) of the Corporate Governance Direction No. 03 of 2008 of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

Jayasuriya was a Non-Executive Director of the Board of Central Finance since 1 July 2011 was appointed Chairman of the Company on 14 July 2017.

Other members of the Central Finance Plc Board at present include Eranjith Wijenaike (Managing Director), Niranjan Peiris, Arjuna Gunaratne, D. Prasanna De Silva, Kuda B. Herath, Dr. A. Damitha N. de Zoysa, Arjun R. Fernando and Chandika Kushan Hettiaracchi.

Talwatte joined the Central Finance Board in June 2016 as an Independent Non-Executive Director. He is a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICASL) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants of the United Kingdom. He has a Post Graduate Diploma in Business and Financial Administration awarded by the ICASL and the University of Wageningen, Holland and a MBA from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. He has also participated in a Kellogg Executive Program at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. He has worked with Ernst & Young for over 37 years, during which period he functioned as the Country Managing Partner for over a decade. He has worked with Ernst & Young‘s Far East Area Executive Committee, the Area Advisory Council and served on the ASEAN Leadership Committee.

He has served as a former President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (2002/2003) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, Sri Lanka (1995/1996) and has also served as the Chairman of the Statutory Accounting Standards Committee, the Auditing Standards Committee, the Urgent Issues Task Force and the Examinations Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka.  Talwatte has been closely associated with the development of Corporate Governance in Sri Lanka. He was actively involved in the development of the Code of Best Practice on Corporate Governance of 2013 of ICASL. In 2012 he co-chaired a Committee on Corporate Governance jointly set up by the ICASL and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka to review and revise the Code of Best Practice on Corporate Governance 2013. He chaired the Committee set up by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka to review and revise the Code of Corporate Governance issued in 2017. He also represents ICASL and chairs the Integrated Reporting Council of Sri Lanka. He has served as a Director of People’s Bank and the SME Bank and functions as the Chairman of Management Systems Ltd. and serves on the Boards of several other companies including Diesel & Motor Engineering PLC, Sunshine Holdings PLC, Tokyo Cement Lanka PLC, CT Holdings PLC, Chevron Lubricants Lanka PLC and Lanka Hospitals PLC.

Manjula de Silva holds a BA Hons (First Class) degree in Economics from the University of Colombo and a MBA from London Business School, UK. He is also a FCMA (UK) and a CGMA. Further, he has pursued executive education at INSEAD Business School, France and Harvard Business School, USA.

He was recently appointed as the Secretary General and CEO of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce with effect from 1st February 2020. Prior to that, he served as Chairman of the State owned National Insurance Trust Fund (NITF) during 2015 - 2019. He also served as a Commission Member of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Sri Lanka during 2018 - 19 and as a Consultant to the Ministry of Public Enterprise Development during 2017 - 18. Prior to 2015, he served as the Managing Director of HNB Assurance PLC for 9 years and as its CEO for 2 more years. He has also held leadership positions as General Manager, Eagle NDB Fund Management Company Ltd (currently NDB Wealth Management), General Manager – Corporate Lines and Human Resources, Eagle Insurance Co. Ltd (currently AIA Insurance) and Director General, Public Enterprises Reform Commission (PERC).

In his capacity as Chairman – NITF, he served on the Governing Council of Asian Reinsurance Corporation based in Bangkok representing the Government of Sri Lanka. Currently, he is an independent non - executive director and Chairman – Audit Committee of BPPL Holdings PLC.

He also served as the Chairman of CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) Sri Lanka Board in 2016 and was subsequently appointed to its Regional Board for MESANA (Middle East, South Asia and North Africa) Region. He was a Committee Member of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce for a long period of time and has served as the Chairman of its Steering Committee on Insurance. He is a Past President of both Insurance Association of Sri Lanka (IASL) and Unit Trust Association of Sri Lanka (UTASL).