About Us

Non Independent / Non-Executive Director

Dr. N S Punchihewa is a Senior Lecturer in Law, Faculty of Law and is currently the Director of the University Business Linkage (UBL), University of Colombo. He is also an Attorney-at-Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka.  He has been appointed to the Board of Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka & Finance PLC (MBSL) as Independent/Non-Executive Director with effect from 16th July 2020.

Dr. Punchihewa is a Member of the Intellectual Property Advisory Commission constituted under the Intellectual Property Act of Sri Lanka and the Coordinator MPhil/ PhD Programme of the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo. He is currently serving as a National Legal Specialist in Intellectual Property Rights and Sri Lanka Law to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and served as a Consultant to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on the project “Intellectual Property Rights in Tourism and Culture” from 2016 to 2019.   He teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses including Intellectual Property (IP) Law at the Faculty of Law and is also a visiting lecturer in several postgraduate and undergraduate programs in leading academic institutions.

Dr. Punchihewa’s research interests cover IP law with particular reference to patent, branding and trademarks, copyright, competition/antitrust law, human rights, and information technology law. He has authored the books titled “Promoting a second-Tier Protection Regime for Innovation of Small and Medium Enterprises in South Asia: The Case of Sri Lanka” published by NOMOS, Baden-Baden, Germany and “Intellectual Property in Tourism and Culture in Sri Lanka” published by the WIPO.  Dr. Punchihewa has presented papers at conferences (both local and international) and published peer-reviewed journal articles on intellectual property, technology transfer and competition law.  In 2018, he was awarded the Senate Award for Research Excellent by the University of Colombo.  Furthermore, he has served as the Managing Editor of the Colombo Law Review (2017-2018) and currently is a member of the Editorial Board of the Sri Lanka Journal of International Law.

Dr. Punchihewa holds a Doctorate Degree in Law (Dr. jur.) with honours magna cum laude Ludwig-Maximilians from the University of Munich/Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich, Germany in 2014, LLM in Intellectual Property and Competition Law from the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center (MIPLC), Munich, Germany in 2009 and LLB (Hons.) Second Class (Upper Division) from the University of Colombo in 2000.

Non Independent / Non-Executive Director

Mr. M P Ruwan Kumara is a member of the Corporate Management of Bank of Ceylon (BOC) since September 2020 and currently serves as Deputy General Manager – Finance and Planning.   He has been appointed to the Board of Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka & Finance PLC (MBSL) as Non Independent/Non-Executive Director with effect from 20th April 2021 and serves as a member of the Integrated Risk Management Committee of MBSL.

Mr. Ruwan Kumara possesses over 18 years of experience in Bank of Ceylon specializing in Financial Management, Strategic Planning, Investment Banking, Commercial Banking and Overseas Banking operations.    He serves as a Director of BOC Property Development and Management (Private) Limited.

Mr. Ruwan Kumara holds a BSc (Special) degree in Accountancy from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the Open University of Sri Lanka.  He is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, Associate Member of Certified Management Accountants of Sri Lanka, Associate Member of the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka and Member of the Sri Lanka Institute of Directors (SLID).

Independent/ Non-Executive Director

Mr. Varuna Jayasinghe is an Attorney-at-Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. Presently he is a member of the Bar Association of Mount-Lavinia and also the Secretary of the Bar Association of Mount-Lavinia. Simultaneously he works at the Prime Minister’s Office as a Coordinating Secretary to the Honorable Prime Minister. He has more than Six (06) years’ working experience as an Executive Officer at Vacuum Processing Lanka Ltd, a subsidiary group of Global Transportation & Logistics (Pvt.) Ltd. During his schooling he has actively participated in the extra-curricular activities. He was the cricket captain of the college under 19 cricket team in 1993/94 season and also he was the Deputy Head Prefect of the college in 1993/94.

Non Executive/ Non Independent Director

Mr. R M N Jeewantha was appointed to the Corporate Management of the Bank of Ceylon in August 2020 and assumed duties as Deputy General Manager (International, Treasury and Investment).

Mr. Jeewantha is a graduate of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, and holds a BSc Degree in Accountancy (Special). Later on, he obtained his MBA from the Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) in 2008. He is also an Associate Member of the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka (AIB).

Mr. Jeewantha joined the Bank of Ceylon in 2002 as a Management Trainee and possesses vast experience in retail banking, credit management and financial management. However, his forte lies in Treasury Management and Investment Banking and he commenced his Treasury career at the Dealing Room in 2008 as a Trainee Dealer and successfully rose to the position of CEO of Bank of Ceylon Primary Dealer Unit. He was later appointed to the Executive Management of the Bank as the Assistant General Manager (Treasury). In addition, he has gained international banking exposure by working in Bank of Ceylon, London. Apart from the functions of the Treasury Division, he has served as the Head of the Committee for the Investment in Government Securities (CIGS), Member of the Investment Committee and Secretary of Asset & Liability Management Committee (ALCO) of Bank of Ceylon. Presently, Mr. Jeewantha holds the positions of Director in Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka & Finance Plc, Lanka Securities (Pvt) Ltd and Ceybank Asset Management Ltd, Alternate Director, Transnational Lanka Records Solution (Private) Ltd and Member of the Governing Board of Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka. He also functions as a Member of the Central Bank's Domestic Financial Market Infrastructure Development project. He is a Member of the Special Standing Cabinet Appointed Procurement Committee (SSCAPC) of Ministry of Energy for the procurement of Petroleum and petroleum related products representing Bank of Ceylon. He is also a Member of the Public Enterprises Project Evaluation Committee of Prospective Investors and Committee Member of specific selling committee for the sale of Mineral Products of Lanka Mineral Sands Limited appointed by the Ministry of Industries.

Non-Executive/ Non – Independent Director

Mr. Priyal Silva joined the Bank of Ceylon in 1997 as a Management Trainee and commenced his career in Branch banking and counts over 24 years of extensive experience in all aspects of commercial banking including Retail and International divisions by carrying out duties as a Credit Officer, Audit Officer, Branch Manager and Dealer of Dealing room and London Branch.

He played an impressive role as the Senior Manager of Trade Promotion Unit and as the Chief Manager of International Division for more than 5 consecutive years. He held several key positions of the bank and played a major role of Marketing Division. He was a member of many executive management committees of the bank including Reward and Recognition Committee and Disciplinary Authority Committee.

Mr. Priyal graduated from the University of Ruhuna with Bachelor of Business Administration (Specialized in Marketing) Degree with 2nd class Upper division and has obtained Master of Business Degree in Accountancy from the University of Kelaniya. He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration and Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Marketing from CIM. He is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing UK and the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka (IBSL). Prior to being appointed as the Deputy General Manager (Corporate & Offshore Banking), he held range of Corporate and Executive Management positions including Deputy General Manager (Sales & Channel Management), Deputy General Manager (Finance & Planning), and Chief Marketing Officer, Assistant General Manager (North Western Province), Assistant General Manager (Marketing) and Assistant General Manager (Western Province – North)

Non-Executive/ Non – Independent Director

Mr. Jayathilaka counts over 24 years of experience in multi-disciplinary roles in Retail Banking, Treasury and Overseas operations, Project Management, Products and Process Development, Credit and Recoveries. He was appointed to the Corporate Management of Bank of Ceylon in February 2020 and currently functions as the Deputy General Manager – Product & Banking Development. Mr. Jayathilaka has been involved in the implementation of major IT projects of Bank of Ceylon such as Core Banking system and Trade Finance systems in BOC UK Ltd, Core Banking and Teller system upgrade, DMS and Workflow Automation System and several other customer-facing digital offerings in the Bank.

Mr. Jayathilaka holds BSc (Special) Degree in Business Administration (University of Sri Jayewardenepura), Master of Business (Finance) Degree (University of Kelaniya), Diploma in Banking and Finance, and Advanced Course in Strategic Management from the Postgraduate Institute of Management (University of Sri Jayewardenepura). He is an Associate of the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka.

Mr. Jayathilaka serves as a Director of the Boards of Property Development PLC, Hotels Colombo (1963) Limited, Property Development Management Limited, and Ceybank Holiday Homes (Pvt) Limited.

Mr. Jayathilaka has been appointed to the Board of Directors of MBSL with effect from 4 th April 2023 and currently he serves as the Chairman of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Committee of MBSL.