Justice Sripavan and academic Jayawardane to head Commercial Bank Board

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC last week issued the bio data of the Chairman and Deputy Chairman appointed a few days earlier, as reported in last week’s The Sunday Island.

Former Chief Justice Kanagasabapathy Sripavan was appointed Chairman, while senior academic, Prof. A. K. W. Jayawardane was named Deputy Chairman with effect from December 21 and 29, 2020 respectively.

Justice Sripavan and Prof. Jayawardane succeeded Messrs. Dharma Dheerasinghe and Preethi Jayawardena, who retired from their positions as Chairman and Deputy Chairman of Sri Lanka’s benchmark private bank after completing their tenures.

Justice Sripavan was appointed Chief Justice in January 2015 and held office until March 2017. During this period, he functioned as the Chairman of the Judicial Services Commission of Sri Lanka, Chairman of the Incorporated Council of Legal Education, Chairman of the Sri Lanka Judges’ Institute and Chairman of the Superior Court Complex Board of Management.

He was enrolled as an Attorney-at-Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka in 1977. He obtained a Diploma in Industrial Law from the University of Colombo in 1992 and Master of Laws from the University of London in 1994.

Justice Sripavan functioned as the Head of the Court of Appeal Unit in the Attorney General’s Department and handled a large volume of work both in the Court of Appeal and in the Supreme Court including Bills and Fundamental Rights applications.

Prior to the elevation to the Court of Appeal Bench, he functioned as a Legal Consultant to the National Savings Bank for two years.

He was appointed a Judge of the Court of Appeal in May 2002 and was elevated as President of the Court of Appeal in March 2007. In March 2008, he was promoted to the Supreme Court Bench.

Prof. A. K. W. Jayawardane is currently a Commission Member of the University Grants Commission and a Senior Professor in Civil Engineering. He served as the Vice Chancellor of the University of Moratuwa for six years, Dean, Faculty of Engineering for six years and as an Endowed Professor in Entrepreneurship at the University of Moratuwa for one year.

He obtained a BSc Eng Degree in Civil Engineering with first class honours from the University of Moratuwa, a Master of Science Degree in Construction from the Loughborough University of Technology UK and a PhD in Construction Management from the same University.

Prof. Jayawardane served as the President of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka. He is also a Director of Sierra Cables PLC and a member of Board of Management of several other institutions.

He is a Corporate Member, a Fellow and an International Professional Engineer of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka (IESL), CEng, FIE(SL), IntPE(SL), Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka, FNAS(SL), Founder Member of the Society of Structural Engineers Sri Lanka, MSSE(SL), Fellow of the Institute of Project Managers, Sri Lanka, FIPM (SL), a Life Member of Sri Lanka Association for Advancement of Science and a Graduate Member of the Sri Lanka Institute of Directors GSLID.

Commercial Bank is the first Sri Lankan Bank to be listed among the Top 1,000 Banks of the World and the only Sri Lankan bank to be so listed for 10 years consecutively. It has won more than 50 international and local awards in 2019, operates a network of 268 branches and 880 ATMs in Sri Lanka.