Prof. Malik, Dhara join Sampath Bank Board

Top professionals Professor Malik Ranasinghe and Dhara Wijayatilake have been appointed to the Board of Directors of Sampath Bank.

The Non Executive Independent directorships have expanded the Sampath Bank Board to 14 and with an alternative director it is 15. Several senior members of Sampath Bank Board will be relinquishing their posts later this year as part of Central Bank directions applicable to commercial banks on corporate governance.

Prof. Ranasinghe is the Vice-Chancellor, University of Moratuwa. He is a Senior Professor in Civil Engineering at the University of Moratuwa, Fellow, Chartered Engineer and International Professional Engineer of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka and a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, Sri Lanka.

He is a past Chairman of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Directors (CVCD) of Sri Lanka, a former Council Member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and an independent non-executive Director of Hemas Power PLC. He is a former Fellow of the National University of Singapore, a former Non-Executive Director of the Colombo Stock Exchange and of the Lanka IOC PLC.

Prof. Ranasinghe obtained his PhD in 1990 from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada in Civil Engineering Economics as a Canadian Commonwealth Scholar.

Since attending Harvard University, U.S.A. in 1993 for a postgraduate programme in Environmental Economics and Policy Analysis, he has successfully combined research and applications in Engineering Economics with Project Management He has published over 110 research publications, of which over 60 are international refereed publications.

Wijayatilake, is a senior Public Officer who currently holds the position of Secretary to the Ministry of Technology and Research. She is an Attorney-at-Law of 37 years standing and holds a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) degree

Wijayatilake joined public service in 1974 as an Assistant Secretary in the Legal Division of the Ministry of Justice and has since held several key positions in Government including the position of Secretary to the Ministry of Justice (1994) and Secretary to the Ministry of Plan Implementation (2006). With her appointment as Secretary to the Ministry of Justice in 1994, she became the first woman to be appointed to the post of a Secretary to a Cabinet Ministry.

She continues to function as a member of the Law Commission of Sri Lanka. She has represented the Government at several International Meetings including as a member of, and in 2011 as the Head of the Government delegation to the sessions of the UN Commission on the Elimination of All Kinds of Discrimination against Women (UN, CEDAW). She was also the first Secretary General of SAARCLAW (the Association of Legal persons of SAARC countries) (1991 - 2000) and subsequently held office as its President (2002-2004).

With the two new appointments  the Sampath Bank Board comprises I.W. Senanayake (Chairman), Sunil Wijesinha (Deputy Chairman), Harris Premaratne (Managing Director), Aravinda Perera (Deputy Managing Director), Ranjith Samaranayake, Dhammika Perera, Mohan Abeynaike, Denzil J Gunaratne, Dr. Saman Kelegama, Lakshman J.K. Hettiaratchi, Prasantha Lal de Alwis, Deepal Sooriyaarachchi, Prof. Malik Ranasinghe, Dhara Wijayatilake and S. Sudarshan (as alternate Director to Dr. Kelegama)