Sujeewa Rajapakse assumes office as People’s Bank Chairman

New People’s Bank Chairman Sujeewa Rajapakse assumes office yesterday. General Manager Rasitha Gunawardana looks on - Pic by Lasantha Kumara

•  Several private sector faces in new Board of Directors 

Top professional Sujeewa Rajapakse yesterday assumed office as the Chairman of People’s Bank while a new Board of Directors has also been appointed. 

Other than Ex-Officio members, the new Directors are Sudarshan Ahangama, who is also the Group Finance Director of MAS Holdings; Isuru Balapatabendi, Attorney-at-Law by profession, a former State Counsel at the Attorney General’s Department and a diplomat; Malindu Ranasinghe, a Director and CEO of Oxford College of Business; Keerthi Gunathilake, an expert in IT, digital forensics, etc.; Kumar Gunawardena and Manjula Wellalage. After assuming duties, Rajapakse addressed the bank’s senior management. 

He counts over 30 years of experience in audit and consultancy services. He is an expert in providing business advisory services covering a wide range of industries from general trading, apparel, real estate, leisure management and plantations to finance and banking. 

In addition to being a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, he holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. He has gained extensive exposure from the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), Confederation of Asia Pacific Accountants (CAPA) and South Asia Federation of Accountants (SAFA).

He is a Past President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICASL) and the International Liaison Partner (ILP) of BDO Partners, Sri Lanka. He is currently the Managing Partner of BDO partners, Chairman of the Statutory Auditing Standard Committee of the ICASL, a board member of the Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standard Monitoring Board and a Council Member of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. He was a member of the Monetary Policy Consultative Committee of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) as well as a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Sri Lanka Pay Commission.