Thilan Wijesinghe, currently Group Chief Executive Officer / Managing Director of Forbes & Walker Ltd, takes over as Group Managing Director of Overseas Realty Ceylon Ltd (ORCL) PLC from February 1, ORCL announced this week.

Thilan Wijesinghe

ORCL is among the largest property owning companies in Sri Lanka, founded by pioneering Singaporean property developer S.P. Tao. It owns the World Trade Centre and Colombo city’s largest contiguous block of residential and commercial land, the 18 ½ acre Havelock City property. The statement said Mr Wijesinghe is one of the most successful business professionals in Sri Lanka, with a remarkable track record in entrepreneurship and public service and having three honours degrees in Business Administration from the State University of New York, and Industrial Engineering and Economics from Cornell University.

In 1992, he pursued entrepreneurial interest by co-founding Asia Capital, which became Sri Lanka’s largest investment bank in terms of market capitalization and then in September 1995 was appointed Chairman/Director-General of the Board of Investment. In 2002, Mr Wijesinghe shifted to property and leisure, pursuing his passion for design, architecture and property development and was involved in running Asian Hotels.

He then moved to the MJF Group and assumed the role of Group CEO/Managing Director of Forbes & Walker where he co-founded MJF Leisure, Forbes & Walker Leisure and Ceylon Tea Trails, currently one of Sri Lanka’s most successful resort hotels. During his 5-year tenure at Forbes & Walker, he turned around this loss-making Group, tripling its turnover and quadrupling profits over a 4-year period.