New Board appointments at HNB Assurance, HNB General Insurance

HNB Assurance PLC (HNBA) yesterday announced the appointments of Damien Fernando and Stuart Chapman as Non-Executive Directors while its subsidiary, HNB General Insurance Ltd., (HNBGI) announced the appointments of Damien Fernando, Sanjay Wijemanne and Arjuna Abeygunasekara as Non-Executive Directors to the respective Boards. 

These appointments have been approved at the recently-concluded company Annual General Meeting and also by the Insurance Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka. 

The reconstituted Board of HNBA comprises Rose Cooray as Chairperson, Deepthi Lokuarachchi as Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mahendra Jayasekera, Siromi Wickramasinghe, Dr. Sivakumar Selliah, Dilshan Rodrigo, Ravi Abeysuriya, Damien Fernando and Stuart Chapman. 

The reconstituted Board of HNBGI comprises Rose Cooray as Chairperson, Deepthi Lokuarachchi as Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Faizal Salieh, Dilshan Rodrigo, Marina Tharmaratnam, Damien Fernando, Sanjay Wijemanne and Arjuna Abeygunasekara.

Damien Fernando is an old boy of St. Peter’s College, Colombo and Royal College, Colombo, Fernando is a Fellow Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants of United Kingdom and is a qualified Accountant of the Institute of Chartered Management Accountants of Sri Lanka and obtained a Master of Business Administration Degree from the Postgraduate Institute of Management, University of Sri Jayawardenapura.

Fernando has held many key positions in several sectors including Finance, Life and General Insurance and has held positions on the Boards of the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation Ltd., Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka, Lanka Hospital Corporation PLC, Melstacorp PLC, Pelwatte Sugar PLC and National Asset Management Ltd. Presently Fernando is a member of the Boards of the Hatton National Bank PLC, HealthCey Ltd. and Addison Ltd.

Stuart Chapman holds a Master of Business Administration Degree from the University of Colombo and a Diploma in Marketing, UK. He is a Fellow Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK. He has also obtained a Diploma in Life Insurance Sales and Marketing from the Life Underwriters Training Council, USA. He is also a Fellow Member of the Institute of Management, UK. He is a Member of the Institute of Certified Management Accountants, Australia and holds a Diploma in Business Management from the National Institute of Business Management, Sri Lanka. 

With over 38 years of professional experience in industries including insurance, merchant banking, FMCG, healthcare and telecommunications, Chapman has held several key positions. He has served Janashakthi Insurance PLC in the capacity of Director/CEO and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Pharmaceuticals as Managing Director, Lanka Orix Leasing Company in the capacity of Managing Director, Hemas Healthcare Sector as Managing Director, Reckitt Benckiser as Marketing Director and Unilever Sri Lanka as a Senior Brand Manager. He has been on the Boards of Ceylinco Insurance Co. Ltd., Seylan Merchant Bank, Glaxo Wellcome Ceylon Ltd., SmithKline Beecham Ltd., Lanka Orix Leasing Company Ltd. and currently serves on the Boards of Hemas Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and United Motors Lanka PLC. 

In addition, he has held several positions in the industry including that of Honorary President and Founding Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Sri Lanka Region, President of the Chamber of Pharmaceutical Industry and Co-Chairman of the Pharmaceutical and Cosmetics Steering Committee of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.

Sanjay Wijemanne holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business & Finance from Mount Saint Mary’s University in the United States of America. Wijemanne currently holds the position of Deputy General Manager of Retail Banking at the Hatton National Bank PLC and manages key areas pertaining to personal financial services (leasing, pawning, personal and housing loans), credit cards, sales and business development, digital banking, network management, deposit mobilisation, marketing communications, customer service, club and priority banking, inward remittances and exchange house relationships and bancassurance channels. 

Having commenced his career at Ceylinco Securities & Financial Services, he then joined the Hatton National Bank PLC and subsequently The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd., where he held many key positions including Vice President – Custody and Clearing, Head of Sales, Head of Branches including Premier Banking, Branch Manager – Kollupitiya Branch/Manager Premier Centre. He then joined the Standard Chartered Bank and held positions of Head of Retail Banking, General Manager – Premium Banking Branch Sales and Services and General Manager – Value Centre.

Arjuna Abeygunasekara counts over 20 years of experience in the banking sector including branch banking and treasury management in four leading banks in the country. He currently holds the position of Assistant General Manager – Treasury and Markets of Hatton National Bank PLC. Abeygunasekara holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Colombo and a Master of Business Administration Degree from the University of Colombo. He has obtained the status of ACI and the status of Chartered Global Management Accountant and is an Associate Chartered Management Accountant. In addition, he serves the Centre for Banking Studies of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka as a recourse person.

HNB Assurance PLC (HNBA) is the one of the fastest growing insurance companies in Sri Lanka with a network of 59 branches. HNBA is a life insurance company with a rating of A (lka) by Fitch Ratings Lanka for ‘National Insurer Financial Strength Rating’. 

Following the introduction of the segregation rules by the Insurer Regulator, HNB General Insurance (HNBGI) was created and commenced its operations in January 2015; HNBGI continues to specialise in motor, non-motor and Takaful insurance solutions and is a fully-owned subsidiary of HNB Assurance PLC. 

HNBA is rated within the Top 100 Brands and Top 100 companies in Sri Lanka by LMD and HNB Assurance has won international awards for Brand Excellence, Digital Marketing and HR Excellence and also won many awards for its Annual Reports at the Award ceremonies organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and SAFA (South Asian Federation Accountants).