New chairman and deputy at ComBank

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC has appointed Dharma Dheerasinghe and Preethi Jayawardena as Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Bank.

Dharma Dheerasinghe, a graduate of the University of Colombo where he obtained a B.Com and B.Phil (Econ) with first class honours, he holds an 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 an Honorary ACI Diploma.

He succeeds Dinesh Weerakkody who retired after two and a half years as Chairman.

Dheerasinghe was appointed to the Board of Commercial Bank in December 2011 following which he was elected Deputy Chairman. He was previously Senior Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) and also served as Chairman of the Monetary Policy Committee and Sovereign Ratings Committee.

Preethi Jayawardena was appointed to the Board of Commercial Bank in December 2011. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and has nearly 35 years of experience locally and overseas specialising in finance and treasury operations.

He was with Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines for 13 years in many senior positions including Head of Treasury, managing an international loan portfolio of over US$ 2 billion.

He presently serves as the Group Consultant at Chemanex PLC after stepping down as the Company's Managing Director in March 2013.

He is the Chairman of Lanka Rating Agency (Formerly Ram Rating) and Commercial Insurance Brokers (Pvt) Ltd.

He is also a Group Director of CIC Holdings PLC and John Keells Foods PLC.