John Keells Holdings Sri Lanka - About Us / Director Profiles


		Food & Beverages

		Transportation

		Leisure

		IT & BPO

		Financial Services

		Property Development

		Plantation Services

	History
	Vision and Values
	Director Profiles
	Group Executive Committee

Director Profiles


1	2	3	4

5	6	7	8

9	10


1.	Susantha Ratnayake Chairman
	Mr Ratnayake became Chairman on 1st January 2006, after having been appointed to the Board during 1992/1993, and Deputy Chairman during 2004/2005. He is also the Chairman of all subsidiary Companies of the Group and has over 27 years management experience, all of which is within the JKH Group. He serves as a council member of the Employers Federation of Ceylon, a Committee Member of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the Tourism, Sovereign Rating and Investment Promotion Clusters of the National Council of Economic Development (NCED).


2.	Ajit Gunewardene Deputy Chairman
	Mr Gunewardene is Deputy Chairman of JKH, and has been a member on the Board since 1992/1993. Whilst having overall responsibility for the Financial Services, Leisure and Property Development Groups he oversees the Investor Relations function at the Centre. A Director in many Group Companies, he is also a member of the Capital Markets Cluster of the NCED, a member of the Finance and Banking sub committee, Economic and Fiscal Planning sub committee and Chairman of the Capital Market sub committee of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, as well as a former Chairman of the Colombo Stock Exchange. Mr Gunewardene brings 23 years of management experience to the Board.


3.	Sumithra Gunesekera Director and President
	Appointed to the Board in 1997/98, Mr Gunesekera has overall responsibility for the Plantation Services Group and the Corporate Communications function at the Centre. He is also the Head of the John Keells Social Responsibility Foundation Management Committee and a member of the Board of Governors of the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management. Mr Gunesekera is a Director in many Group Companies and has over 22 years of management experience.


4.	Ronnie Peiris Group Finance Director and President
	Appointed to the Board during 2002/03, Mr Peiris has overall responsibility for Group Finance, including Treasury, Taxation, Corporate Finance, Group Initiatives, Shared Services, Real Estate and the Information Technology functions at the Centre. Previously, Managing Director of Anglo American Corporation (Central Africa) Limited and EXCO Member of Konkola Copper Mines plc, both in Zambia, Mr Peiris has served in many Boards overseas. He is a Director in many Group Companies and has over 32 years finance and general management experience in Sri Lanka and abroad. He is a Fellow member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, UK, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, UK, and the Society of Certified Management Accountants, Sri Lanka, and holds an MBA from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He is a member of the committee of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and serves in its Economic, Fiscal and Policy Planning sub committee.


5.	Franklyn Amerasinghe Director *
	Appointed to the board during 1999/00, Mr Amerasinghe is the former CEO and Director General of the Employers' Federation of Ceylon. He was thereafter attached to the ILO as a senior specialist in the social dialogue sector in charge of Employers Organizations in East Asia up to October 2002. A Bachelor of Law and a lawyer by profession, he is currently a consultant and trainer in social dialogue, human resource management and industrial relations, both in Sri Lanka and abroad. He is a Founder Trustee of the Employment Mediation Services Centre and is a judge for sustainability reporting for the ACCA since the initiative commenced in Sri Lanka. He was also one of the Founder Directors of the Skills Development Fund. He has authored books on a wide range of subjects and his papers on Industrial Relations in Sri Lanka have been published in some international and local journals.


6.	Tarun Das Director *
	Appointed to the board during 2000/01, Mr Das has served with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for a long period and was its Chief Executive from 1974 to 2004. Mr Das is currently Chief Mentor, CII. He is also the Chairman of Haldia Petrochemicals Limited of India.

Steven Enderby
Director *

Appointed to the board in 2005/06, Mr Enderby is currently based in Delhi where he is a Partner in the leading emerging markets private equity investor, Actis Capital LLP, UK. His other directorships include Swaraj Mazda, Nitrex Chemicals, Tema India, Phoenix Lamps, Ceylon Oxygen, MFE and Actis Advisers. Mr Enderby holds a BSc (Hons) in Economics and Accounting from the Queens University of Belfast and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, UK.


8.	Mohamed Muhsin Director *
	Appointed to the board in 2005/06, Mr Muhsin is a strategic management consultant and director on international corporate and foundation boards. Mr Muhsin retired from the World Bank in 2005 having served in various senior positions for 17 years, ten of which as Vice President and Chief Information Officer. Prior to this, he served for ten years as an advisor to the President of Zambia on state enterprise reform and as the Group Financial Director of the business conglomerate, the Zambia Industrial and Mining Corporation (ZIMCO). Mr Muhsin is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (FCA).

9.	Deshamanya Deva Rodrigo Director *
	Appointed to the board in July 2006, Mr Rodrigo, a Chartered Accountant, had a career with the international accounting and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, joining the firm in East Africa in 1974 and serving in its London offices in 1980. He was a Founder Partner when PricewaterhouseCoopers established its Sri Lankan firm in 1981, and held the position of Senior Partner from 1992 to 30 June 2006, when he retired from the firm. Mr Rodrigo was the Chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce from 2004 to 2006. He has previously held public office as a Director of People's Bank from 2000 to early 2003 and as a member of the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission from May 1997 to January 2002. Mr Rodrigo was also a member of the Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka from 2003 to 2006 and a member of the National Council for Administration from 2004 to 2006.

10.	Sithie Tiruchelvam Director *
	Appointed to the board in January 2007, Ms Tiruchelvam, a lawyer of the Supreme Court of Ceylon, specialises in corporate law, intellectual property law and labour law and is a notable human rights campaigner. She obtained her LLB from the University of Ceylon in 1966, and was admitted to the Supreme Court as Advocate in 1968. She is a founding Partner of Tiruchelvam Associates. Ms Tiruchelvam currently serves on several boards, among them being Central Corporate & Consultancy Services (Pvt.) Limited, Galadari Hotels (Lanka) Limited, Nadesan Centre for Human Rights, LIRNEasia and South Asians for Human Rights, a regional organisation with its secretariat in Colombo. She is the Chairperson of the Foundations for Peace Network, a worldwide network of community foundations working on peace and reconciliation in fractured societies. She has also completed a programme on corporate philanthropy at the Rockefeller Foundation, programme for philanthropy in New York, USA in 2000/01.


* Independent Non-Executive # Non Independent Non Executive	Top of the Page