Lakdhanavi Limited, Bangladesh

Mr. U.D. Jayawardana is the Chief Executive Officer of the LTL Holdings Group of Companies (LTL or the LTL Group), an Electrical Engineer graduated from the University of Moratuwa. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institute of Engineers Sri Lanka (IESL) and Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) London. He started his career at the Sri Lankan power sector utility, Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) in the year 1974. After having been in the generation branch for a brief period, he joined the Transformer Workshop of the CEB. Whilst in the Transformer Workshop, together with another senior engineer seconded from CEB, he initiated the idea of forming the transformer manufacturing facility, the maiden business venture of the LTL Holdings (Pvt.) Limited. Mr. Jayawardana was then appointed the General Manager of LTL in 1988.

Having witnessed the technical capabilities of the Sri Lankan Engineers, Mr. Jayawardana took another decisive step to commence Galvanizing Facilities and to undertake the first ever IPP Project in Sri Lanka. He also guided the entry of LTL Group for investment in the power generation sector in the mid-1990s. Today his efforts are rewarded at the LTL Group, where revenue from power generation in thermal, hydro and wind power assets becoming the main source of income.

His vision of targeting markets beyond Sri Lanka, propelled the next phase of expansion of the LTL Group which was accomplished with the export of Sri Lankan made transformers, as well as undertaking overseas projects. Mr. Jayawardana’s visionary leadership has brought the Sri Lanka engineering capacity and competence demonstrated around the globe.

Mr. Marikkar holds a B.Sc. (Hons) degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Peradeniya and a Master’s degree in Construction Management from the University of Moratuwa. After graduation, he started his career as an Electrical Engineer in the power distribution company, Lanka Electricity Company (Private) Limited (LECO). He then moved to CEB, where he gained wider experience in managing Transmission Line/Substation projects. He has extensive experience in construction and project management in the electrical sector. Mr. Marikkar has overseen projects worth of more than Rs. 100 Bn including high voltage transmission lines, substations and all the power plant projects handled by LTL and has acted as the project director in all thermal power projects of the LTL Group implemented to date, whilst he functions as the Chief Operations Officer (COO) of the LTL Holdings Group.

Mr. U. G. Sarath is a career banker. He has a B.Sc. (Business Administration) from University of Ceylon and a Post Graduate Diploma in Economic Development from University of Colombo. Subsequently, he obtained a Master of Arts degree from University of Colombo and Master of Business Administration from University of Sri Jayewardenepura. He started his career at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Then he moved into merchant banking. He worked at several merchant banking institutions in Sri Lanka where he managed to arrange large project finance deals. Mr. Sarath, with his 40 years of experience in the financial sector brings in immense value to the financing and commercial operations of the LTL Group. Before joining LTL Group, Mr. Sarath was the CEO of the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka (IBSL). Mr. Sarath currently serves as a Director of Lakdhanavi Limited in addition to being the General Manager – Offshore Operation overseeing the Bangladesh Operations.

Mr. Bandaranayake was the Deputy General Manager of Operations at Commercial Bank of Ceylon until September 2012. He counts for over 30 years of distinguished service in his lifelong career in banking.

He served Commercial Bank in various capacities such as Branch Manager (Kandy, City Office), Chief Manager, Assistant General Manager, and Deputy General Manager (Operations). During his career at the Bank, he was appointed as Director at LankaClear and also served as Director of Commex Sri Lanka S R L (subsidiary of Commercial Bank based in Italy) and ONEzero Company Ltd., (subsidiary of Commercial Bank engaged in the business of Information Technology).

Mr. Bandaranayake holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Physical Sciences from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura.

Rear Admiral Sarath Palitha Fernando, PC, VNF is a Sri Lankan legal professional. He is the former Attorney General of Sri Lanka and had served as Solicitor General of Sri Lanka and Judge Advocate of the Sri Lanka Navy. After taking oaths as an attorney at law he joined the Attorney General's Department as an acting State Counsel in 1980, later becoming a Senior State Counsel in 1989 and Deputy Solicitor General in 1997. During this time he prosecuted in several major criminal cases.

Having joined the Volunteer Naval Force in 1989 as a Commander, in 2004 he was appointed Judge Advocate of the Sri Lanka Navy, to head its Legal branch. He had served as prosecutor and also Judge Advocate at several Courts Martial of all three Services, including the Court-Martial of the Commander Southern Naval Command in 2008. In 2011, he was appointed Solicitor General and served as acting Attorney General from July 2011 until formal appointment in June 2012. He retired from the post on October 23, 2014.

Mr. Fernando passed the preliminary and final examinations at Sri Lanka Law College with a First Class and also gained an LLB from the University of Colombo and two LLMs in International Law and International Commercial Law from the University of Colombo and the University of Bristol, UK. He is a visiting lecturer at the General Sir John Kotelawala Defense University, Open University of Sri Lanka and a faculty member of Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies.

Mr. Rajiv Casie Chitty has over 30 years’ experience in the private sector of which over 15 years has been at senior management level. He is currently the Chief Operating Officer of Commercial Credit and Finance PLC, prior to which he served as Group Chief Financial Officer at Sunshine Tea Group and Executive Director at Lanka Ceramics PLC.

Mr. Casie Chitty began his career as an audit trainee at KPMG Ford Rhodes Thornton & Co in 1990 and subsequently moved on to a role as Assistant Manager - Capital Markets in 1994. In January 1996 Mr. Casie Chitty was appointed Head of Research at CT Smith Stock Brokers (Pvt) Limited and subsequently became an Executive Director (Research) in April 2000. He has also served as Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer in Ceytea Plantations Management Limited, Uni Dil Packaging Ltd and Horana Plantations PLC.

Mr Casie Chitty is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), UK and Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (ACMA), UK and a Chartered Financial Analyst, USA. He obtained his Masters in Economics from the University of Colombo and won the Janashakthi Gold at the 2006 CIMA Pinnacle Awards. He is the former President of the ACCA Sri Lanka panel.

Mr. Abeywardana has 35 years of executive experience in the Development Banking field, covering Micro enterprises, SMEs and corporate clients through various roles at the Industrial Development Board (IDB), Development Finance Corporation of Ceylon (DFCC), National Development Bank (NDB) and German Development Bank (KFW)-Colombo. He has also lent his knowledge and expertise for foreign and local consultancy assignments in relation to SME development. Since retirement, he has been involved in research on the impacts of development lending.

He was a director of LTL Holdings for more than two decades and has contributed to the expansion of the LTL Group’s activities during this period. Mr. Abeywardana resigned from this position in January 2006 in order to join the Board of Lakdhanavi Limited.

Mr. Abeywardana holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce (Second Class Upper-1974) Peradeniya University and has completed the second level of CIMA.