Board of Directors

Mr. Channa de Silva

Chairman – Non Executive / Non Independent

Mr. Channa de Silva was appointed to the Board in April 2011, and thereafter appointed as Deputy Chairman in November 2014 and assumed office as the Chairman of the SDF in October 2016.

He previously served as the Managing Director of Summit Finance PLC, as well as Managing Director of George Steuart Finance PLC. Formerly, he served as a Director of Pan Asia Bank PLC. He also served as Group Managing Director of Delmege Group Limited. He has served the government sector previously as Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Executive Director of the Board of Investments (BOI) Sri Lanka. He is the Chairman/Co-founder of Capital media.

He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Colombo and a Master’s Degrees from Harvard University and Melbourne University. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (FCMA – UK) and a Fellow of the Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA – UK).

He is the Vice President of the Sarvodaya Movement and also serves as the President of the University of Colombo Graduates Association. He is a Sri Lanka board member of the member network panel of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA - UK) as well, as a Sri Lankan council member of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investments (CISI- UK ). He is an Edward Mason Fellow of the Harvard University and served as a Teaching Fellow in Public Finance at the Harvard Kennedy School.

 

Mr. Dhammika Ganegama

Senior Director - Non Executive / Independent

Mr. Dhammika Ganegama joined the Sarvodaya Development Finance PLC Board in July 2020. With over 25 years of experience in the IT industry, Mr. Ganegama is currently a Founding Partner and Executive Vice President of the Mitra Group.

The Mitra Group is headquartered in the UK with offices across Australia, Sri Lanka, Singapore and the US serving clients across 50+ countries. Mr. Ganegama owns and operates multiple ventures and businesses across many geographies and has also been appointed as a trusted advisor for several for, and not for profit organisations. He has a wealth of experience in consulting and implementing Digital Transformation programmes for global clients, ranging from SMEs, public sector, large scale enterprises and multi-nationals including Siemens, Aetna, BT, Staples, Axiata, IBM and other Fortune 500 clients. His experience and interest extends to programme management, setting up technology led new businesses, and ventures and partnerships across various industry verticals.

 

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Mr. Christopher Amrit CanagaRetna

Non Executive / Independent

Mr. CanagaRetna is an experienced and a qualified ex-banker, with over 35 years of international and local experience specialising in retail and corporate conventional & sharia-based financing. He specialises in financial advisory services relating to working capital funding to financial institutions, corporates, small & medium sized iindustries and start-ups, including foreign trade financing and construction finance.

He is an Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, UK and the Institute of Credit Management, UK.

Having commenced his career at European Asian Bank in 1981, he has since worked for over 8 banks both locally and internationally. Apart from his banking experience, he was the CEO / Director of a Central Bank approved finance company and has been a Financial Consultant to both private / government entities. For 7 years ending 2017, he headed Corporate & SME Business Banking areas of Islamic Financing at Amana Bank PLC as its Vice President – Business Banking. Previously he was the Deputy General Manager of Pan Asia Bank PLC.

 

 

 

Mrs. Shehara de Silva

Non Executive / Independent

Ms. Shehara was appointed to the Board of SDF in June 2019. An experienced international communications and marketing expert, Ms. Shehara has been behind the success of several local, regional and Fortune 500 multinational brands.

Ms. Shehara has worked over a decade in Malaysia with Omnicom Companies, beginning as Director Planning of Naga DDB and later Managing Director of Interbrand Malaysia one of the world’s leading brand consultancies.

She is on the Board of Keells Foods PLC, The Neelan Tiruchelvan Trust, Informatics Institute of Technology and Ex-Pack Corrugated Cartons PLC. Amana Takaful Life Insurance and Optima design Pvt Ltd. She has previously served on the boards of Environment Foundation Ltd, Arthur C Clark Centre for Science and Technology, and Eagle Fund Management. She has also worked in the development sector with ILO, Internews, USAID, NORAD, GIZ, and Plan International.

She was Deputy Director General of the Board of Investment (BOI-SL). Trained in attracting FDI at the IDA in Ireland, she facilitated the transformation of three Sri Lankan groups - Singer in retail, NDB in banking and Janashakthi in insurance.

She has sat on several think tanks, judged innovation awards from the Eisenhower Fellowship and Ray Awards, to MIT global start-ups and the Roger Herschel Creativity Awards. She has spoken extensively at international conferences on branding, strategy and gender issues and won several local and international marketing and women leadership awards.

 

 

Mr.Senthi Nandhanan Senthilverl

Non Executive / Non Independent

Mr. Senthilverl was appointed to the SDF Board on July 15, 2021. He counts 18 years of corporate experience. He was on the board of Pan Asian Power PLC and is currently the CEO at Dollar Corporation, a total solution provider for cosmetics, confectionery, beverages, toiletries, detergent, incense sticks and allied industries. He is also an Executive Director at Senthilverl Holdings (Pvt) Ltd, an investment company specialised in equity investments founded by Dr. Thirugnanasambandar Senthilverl.

He has exposure in several areas such as sales, marketing, purchasing, logistics and equity trading. He is a member of the Association of Business Executives and holds an MBA from the University of Southern Queensland, Australia

 

Mr. Ramesh Schaffter

Non Executive / Non Independent

Mr. Schaffter was appointed to the Director board on April 2022.He serves as Managing Director/Group Chief Executive Officer of Janashakthi Group. Counting over three decades of experience in Finance and Marketing, He is a Fellow Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (UK) and former Council Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, Sri Lanka, and an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He has served on the Boards of several public listed and unlisted companies.

A social entrepreneur and life coach, he is an accomplished public speaker and a multiple award winner at national and international level Toastmasters’ contests. He is the former President of Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka and a former Board Member of World Vision for Sri Lanka. He is a Co-Founder of cable television channel Swarga TV, as well as the Christian Arts Foundation (Chraft), an organization that promotes music and drama in Sri Lanka.

Mr. Schaffter also serves on the Council of the Colombo Theological Seminary, a graduate and postgraduate educational institute, and is the former Chairman of the Incorporated Trustees of the Church of Ceylon.