Mr. Dharma Dheerasinghe
Chairman
Mr Dheerasinghe, an eminent Economist with a distinguish career of over 40
years in the banking industry was appointed to the Board on December 20, 2011. Prior to
his appointment as Chairman on 29th of July 2014, Mr Dheerasinghe was the Deputy
Chairman of the Bank. Previously Mr Dheerasinghe was the Senior Deputy Governor of the
Central Bank of Sri Lanka and was also the Chairman of the Monetary Policy Committee and
Sovereign Ratings Committee. He was also the Alternate Executive Director for
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka at the International Monetary Fund. Mr
Dheerasinghe has published widely in many aspects of economics including debt capital
markets and financial globalization and has over 30 referred articles in reputed
journals and as book chapters in Sri Lanka and overseas. He has also presented more than
50 papers at international seminars. Mr Dheerasinghe currently serves in the Board of
Management of National Science Foundation. He is also a Visiting Lecturer and
Moderator/Examiner in Universities of Colombo, Kelaniya, Sri Jayawardenapura and
Moratuwa and several professional bodies in Sri Lanka. He has made a significant
contribution to the development of the government debt securities market by innovating
and structuring key financial instruments and developing its institutional framework. Mr
Dheerasinghe is a graduate of the University of Colombo where he has obtained B.Com and
B.Phil (Econ) with first class honours. He has obtained M.A.(Econ) from the University
of Leeds, UK and is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka and
holder of Honorary ACI Diploma.
Mr. Sajeeve Piyaratne
Managing Director/Country Head
Mr. Sajeeve Piyaratne possesses 23 years experience at Commercial Bank of
Ceylon. He started his career in branch banking and moved on to be a Business Promotion
Officer, promoting remittances and Bank products to Sri Lankan migrants whilst being
based in countries such as Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain and Qatar. Sajeeve then moved on to
Myanmar to establish the representative office where he initiated the process of
establishing the Micro Finance operations as well. Back in Colombo, he gained further
experience in Retail Product Department and was in charge of establishing and managing
the Direct Sales Team of the Bank.
He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Cardiff Metropolitan University
(UK) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing
(UK)
Mrs. Sandra Walgama
Non Executive Director
Ms Sandra Walgama is presently overall in charge of the Personal Banking
Division, which includes Bank’s network of outlets consisting 261 Branches, Customer
Service Points and Supermarket Centers. Having over 38 years of banking experience at
Commercial Bank; held numerous Senior Managerial positions, prior to being appointed as
Deputy General Manager - Personal Banking.
Ms Walgama is an Associate of the Association of Institute of Bankers Sri Lanka, and
Institute of Administrative Accounting UK. She is also a qualified professional from the
Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment - London in Wealth Management.
Mr. Delakshan Hettiarachchi
Non Executive Director
Mr Delakshan Hettiarachchi accounts for 34 years of banking career at
Commercial Bank. Having held numerous Senior Managerial positions including Development
Lending prior to being appointed as the Assistant General Manager - Personnel Banking
I/SME. Presently he is the corporate head of 5 regions which includes 92 branches.
Mr Hettiarachchi is a fellow member of the Institute of the Bankers Sri Lanka, Master of
Business Administration – Cardiff Metropolitan University of, UK and a Resource person
‘Lending Techniques’ & ‘Project Financing’ at the Training Center for Central Bank of
Sri Lanka.
Mr. Prins Perera
Non Executive Director
Mr. Prins Perera possesses 31 years experience at Commercial Bank of Ceylon
and currently functions as the Chief Treasury Officer of the Bank. Mr. Perera has held
many senior positions in the Bank and also served in Bangladesh for a 2-year period
where he was instrumental in setting up of the Bangladesh Operations of the Bank. As a
prominent member of the corporate management of the Bank, Mr. Perera sits in committees
of the Bank, where he actively participates in arriving at key decisions of the Bank.
He is a Fellow of Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CMA) and holds
qualifications from Chartered Global Management Accountants, Certified Professional
Accountants (Australia) and holds a Master of Financial Economics from University of
Colombo
Managing Director/CEO of Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC.
Mr. Sanath Manatunga
Mr Sanath Manatunge is a Fellow of Chartered Institute of Management
Accountants – UK (FCMA – UK) and has obtained a Master of Business Administration (MBA)
Degree from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura with a Merit Pass. He is also a Fellow
Member of the Institute of Bankers – Sri Lanka (FIB), a Fellow of the Institute of
Certified Management Accountants of Sri Lanka (FCMA) and a Fellow of the Chartered
Management Institute, UK (FCMI). Mr Manatunge is also a member of Sri Lanka Institute of
Directors since August 2017.
Mr Manatunge joined the Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC in 1989. Prior to being appointed
as Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Manatunge functioned as Executive
Director/Chief Operating Officer of the Bank since 2018. He has held Corporate
Management / Senior positions as Deputy General Manager – Corporate Banking, Chief Risk
Officer, Head of Credit Risk and Chief Manager - Corporate Banking.
Under Mr Manatunge, the Corporate Banking Division of the Bank experienced a rapid
growth in the loan book and in areas such as Trade Finance fee-based income while
maintaining the quality of advances. During his tenure as Chief Operating Officer, Mr.
Manatunge was heading strategically important business units of the Bank such as
Personal Banking, Corporate Banking, Information Technology, Cards, and Digital Banking
guiding them to become industry leaders. He has also given leadership and strategic
inputs for transformational projects of the Bank such as “SME Transformation”,
establishing a long term digital roadmap for the Bank and many projects to improve
operational excellence.
Mr Manatunge is also a Director of Commercial Bank of Maldives (Pvt) Ltd., a subsidiary
of Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC since 2016.
He was adjudged the “Chief Information Security Officer of the Year” at the EC – Council
Global CISO Forum held in Atlanta – USA in September 2013 in recognition of his
outstanding contribution in strengthening and promoting information security practices
and IT Risk Management.
He was instrumental in forming the Association of Banking Sector Risk Professionals, Sri
Lanka and was the President in the year 2014. He has also served as a Council Member of
the Association of Professional Bankers (APB) and a member of the CIMA – “Thought
Leadership
Committee”.
He was a visiting lecturer for the MBA Degree programme at the University of Colombo.
Also a resource person at the Training Centre of Central Bank of Sri Lanka and Institute
of Bankers of Sri Lanka.