Board of Directors

Appointed as the Chairperson on 06th July 2015. Mrs. Rose Cooray, having served the Central Bank of Sri Lanka for over 35 years retired as the Deputy Governor and counts over 47 years of experience in the financial sector. She is the Chairperson of Ceylon Guardian Investment Trust PLC, Ceylon Investment PLC and HNB General Insurance Limited. She functioned as Director of Hatton National Bank PLC for nine years and retired in 2019. Whilst being a Director of HNB, she also functioned as a Director of HNB Finance Limited and as the Chairperson of Sithma Development (Pvt) Limited. On release from the Central Bank, she had served the Ministry of Finance and Planning as Director General Fiscal Policy and Economic Affairs for nearly 6 years and represented, the Government on the Boards of DFCC Bank, Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, Sri Lanka Telecom, Ceylon Electricity Board, De La Rue Currency and Security Print (Pvt) Ltd, Export Development Board, National Housing and Development Authority. She has represented the Monetary Board on the Board of West Coast Power (Pvt) Ltd. Mrs. Cooray has been extensively involved in policy making in the financial sector and implementing development projects. She has wide experience in negotiating financial facilities with multilateral donors/bilateral trade agreements. She has contributed papers to professional journals.

Mr. Fernando is a Fellow member of Chartered Institute of Management Accountants of United Kingdom. He has been awarded a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the Postgraduate Institute of Management, University of Sri Jayewardenepura in 1992. He holds Directorship in Addison (Pvt) Ltd and HealthCey (Pvt) Ltd also serving as a non-executive Director of Hatton National Bank PLC and Consultant - Strategy of Melstacorp PLC. He served as the Executive Director of Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation Limited from 2003 to 2009 and held Board positions in companies in sectors of Food & beverage, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Telecommunications, Finance, Asset Management, and in Unit Trusts.

Mr. Sanjaya Wijemanne is the Deputy General Manager – Retail & SME Banking at Hatton National Bank PLC and manage the areas of Personal Financial Services (Leasing, Pawning, Personal & Housing Loans), SME/Microfinance, Credit Cards, Sales & Business Development, Network Management, Deposit Mobilization, Marketing Communications, Customer Service, Club & Priority Banking, Digital Banking, Inward Remittances & Exchange House Relationships and Bancassurance. He has a B.Sc. in Business & Finance from Mount Saint Mary’s University, USA. He is also a Director at Acuity Stockbrokers (Pvt) Ltd, Acuity Partners (Pvt) Ltd and LankaClear (Pvt) Ltd. He commenced his career with Ceylinco Securities & Financial Services and then joined HNB as a Management Trainee/ Executive. Thereafter, he joined HSBC where he held different positions such as Vice President-Custody & Clearing, Head of Sales, Head of Branches including Premier Banking, Branch Manager- Kollupitiya Branch/Manager Premier Center. He then joined Standard Chartered Bank & held position of Head of Retail Banking, General Manager - Premium Banking Branch Sales & Services and General Manager- Wealth Management Value Center.

Mr. Arjuna Abeygunasekara counts over 20 years of experience in the Banking Sector including branch banking and treasury management in four leading commercial banks in the country. He currently holds the position of Deputy General Manager – Treasury and Markets of Hatton National Bank PLC. He is also a Non-Executive Director to the Board of Acuity Securities Ltd. Mr. 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 Member of Chartered Management Accountants UK. In addition, he serves the Centre for Banking Studies of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka as a recourse person.

Mr. Dinesh Dharmadasa possesses over 33 years of Finance, Trade and Fiscal Affairs, Legal and External Affairs, Communication and CSR. Most recently, he completed his illustrious career as Director of Legal and External Affairs at Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC (CTC), a subsidiary of British American Tobacco (BAT) Ceylon Tobacco Company in 2019. A company he joined in the year 1990 as Finance Manager. During his tenure, CTC became ‘The Most Valuable Company’ on the Colombo Stock Exchange and at the same time, established an overall business strategy to become sustainable in the long term, ensuring CTC – Sri Lanka becomes one of the most profitable tobacco companies in Asia and the most valuable company (Market Cap) on the Colombo Stock Exchange. He was the founder Director and instrumental in strategizing and implementing Outreach Projects (Guarantee) Limited, a groundbreaking CSR project introducing a unique home gardening concept costing over LKR 1 billion and benefiting over 20,000 families over the past 10 years. Mr. Dinesh also served as the Chairman of the Industrial Association of Sri Lanka from 2016 to 2018. During his tenure, he developed strong links with stakeholders, public sector officials, multilateral agencies based in Sri Lanka, and local and overseas Chambers formulating strategies for a balanced and steady industrial growth. He also served as a board member of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce during the periods 2012 – 2014 and 2016 to 2018 and also was a Board Member of CIMA – Sri Lanka in 2016. Currently he saves as a Non Executive Independent Director of Expack Corrugated Cartons PLC.

Dayalanie has over 30 years of experience at senior management level working at different corporate entities. At her last posting as the Chief Operating Officer at Janashakthi Insurance Company she headed the General Insurance operations of the Company which included Head Office as well as Branches giving leadership to over 800 team members. During her 23 long years at Janashathi Insurance Company she headed both Life and General Insurance operations and had been responsible in developing new products and aligning systems and procedures to service all such products. She is a Reinsurance specialist and take pride in strategically planning and implementing best Reinsurance program for the Company. She is also a sought-after Management consultant by Insurance companies for their strategic decisions. As a professional who is passionate about people development, she facilitated staff engagement and leadership transformation aligning potential with performance. Her strong people handling skills facilitated her to successfully execute two mergers at her last workplace one being a state organization namely National Insurance Corporation and the other a multinational namely AIA General Insurance. She was the Gold Award recipient of the Banking and Insurance Sector at the 6th Professional and Career Women Awards in 2016 awarded by Women in Management (WIM) in Sri Lanka in association with IFC. She is the current President of International Coaching Federation – Colombo Chapter and was a Past President of the Association of Chartered Insurance Professionals (ACIP) of Sri Lanka during 2018/2019 period. She is currently serving as a Management consultant and an Executive Coach for Leading companies in Sri Lanka.

Yoga Sanjeewani is an Attorney-at-law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka and holds Bachelor’s degree in law from University of Colombo, Master’s Degree in Law from University of Colombo, Post Attorney Diploma in International Trade Law from Advanced Legal Studies Unit of Sri Lanka Law College and Diploma in Human Resource Management. Yoga joined HNB Assurance PLC, Parent organization of HNB General Insurance Ltd in year 2007 and currently heads the overall Legal, Corporate Secretarial and Compliance operation of HNB General Insurance Limited in the capacity of Head of Legal & Compliance Officer/Board Secretary and she is a member of the Senior Management Team. She has over 16 years of professional experience in the fields of Corporate law, Intellectual property, Insurance Law, Property Law, Labour Law and is experienced in all civil litigation. Prior to joining HNB Assurance PLC, Yoga had served in Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation Limited and had worked as a legal researcher at Law & Society Trust, an organization engaged in legal research.