New Chairman and Deputy Chairman at Commercial Bank
View(s):The Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC on Monday announced the appointment of Messrs Dharma Dheerasinghe and Preethi Jayawardena as Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the bank, respectively, effective July 29.
Mr. Dheerasinghe, formerly Deputy Chairman of the Bank, succeeds Dinesh Weerakkody on the latter’s retirement after two and a half years as Chairman, according to a bank statement.
Banking industry sources said that with the two top positions being held by board members who represent the interests of state-owned EPF, the Government had effectively taken control of the bank. A third non-executive director, Lakshman Hulugalle, also representing the interests of the EPF which has a near 20 per cent stake, flew down from Australia where he is the country’s Deputy Ambassador with ambassador rank for Monday’s board meeting where the appointments were endorsed. Mr. Dheerasinghe was appointed to the Board of Commercial Bank on December 20, 2011 and was subsequently elected Deputy Chairman. He was previously Senior Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) and also served as Chairman of the Monetary Policy Committee and Sovereign Ratings Committee. Mr. Jayawardena was appointed to the Board of Commercial Bank in December 2011. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and has nearly 35 years of post-qualifying experience both locally and overseas specialising in Finance and Treasury Operations. Mr. Jayawardena is also a Member of the Monetary Policy Consultative Committee of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
Dharma Dheerasinghe and Preethi Jayawardena