Rajendra Theagarajah joins WUSC board

Rajendra Theagarajah, Managing Director and CEO of Hatton National Bank in Sri Lanka has joined the Board of Directors of the World University Service of Canada (WUSC). The decision was made at the 11 June Ottawa Board of Directors meeting and approved by Maureen O’Neill, the Chair of WUSC.

Theagarajah lives in Colombo and is the only Asian member of the WUSC Board of Directors. He will provide a much appreciated private sector voice to the Board’s deliberations.

Hatton National Bank is one of Sri Lanka’s top commercial banks and was in fact recognized as the Best Retail Bank in Sri Lanka in 2010 by the Asian Banker and also as the Best Bank in Sri Lanka by the Euro Money Magazine. HNB played a leading organising and hosting role at the Asia Microfinance Forum held in Colombo October 2010 and is known for its successful micro finance programming.

A past Chairman of the Sri Lanka Banks Association, Theagarajah was recently elected as the Chairman of the Asian Bankers Association (2011-2012). He is committed to development activities in Sri Lanka at a corporate and personal level. This includes addressing housing issues that are so challenging on tea plantation estates using innovative, environmentally friendly, social impact bonds. Educated in the UK, he worked for years with the US-based Chase Manhattan Bank.

WUSC is one of Canada’s oldest development organisations and has been active on Canadian university and college campuses to engage young people in issues affecting the world around them. Sri Lanka is one of 22 countries in which WUSC works and has one of the longest established country programmes addressing both training for youth employment and tea plantation socio economic development as well as work on gender.