CB clears five new nominees to Sampath Bank Board

Central Bank has approved the five new nominees to the Board of Sampath Bank Plc in place of an equal number retiring by next week.

The five nominees who are qualified and professionals in their respective fields are former International Finance Corporation (IFC) Sri Lanka and Maldives Resident Representative Sanjiva Senanayake, Orit Apparels Chairman Channa Palansooriya, Hirdaramani CFO Ranil Pathirana, IWS Holdings Director Annika Senanayake and Hayleys Plc Head of Strategic Business Development Unit Deshal de Mel who is an economist.

They will be replacing the five senior members on Board including Chairman  and founder director Arthur Senanayake, Deputy Chairman Sunil Wijesinha (Director since October 1996), Lakshman Hettiaratchi (Director since December 1998), Mohan Abeynaike (Director since July 1995) and Denzil Gunaratne (Director since 1998 in addition to 1994 to 1997)



Sanjiva served the private sector investment arm of the IFC between 1988 and 2006. Prior to that he served as Consultant – Treasury and Business Development at Commercial Bank of Ceylon and as the Assistant General Manager – Treasury and Investment Banking at National Development Bank of Sri Lanka, in addition to holding several key positions in the Citibank Group in Sri Lanka and overseas.

Annika is the daughter of Arthur Senanayake, a founder Director of Sampath Bank since March 1987 and Chairman since October 2008. He together with the other four are to step down in compliance with Central Bank rulings that require directors who had served nine continuous years and those who are 70 years of age to step down.

Pathirana also served on the Hayleys Plc Board as an Independent Non Executive Director whilst Sanjiva serves on the Hemas Power Plc Board.

Sampath Bank Plc Director and single largest shareholder Dhammika Perera is also the controlling shareholder of Hayleys Plc as well as Orit Apparels. Deshal is an economist with a MSc, International Political Economy from London School of Economics and BA, Economics, Philosophy and Political Science from University of Oxford.