4) Board

Ms Shanthi Wilson Wijeratnam, BSc (London), Phd Cantab.

Ms Shanthi Wilson Wijeratnam, BSc Hons( Microbiology), University College London, PhD (Post Harvest Biology and Plant Pathology), University of Cambridge, UK. Currently Deputy Director Research and Development, Industrial Technology Institute, Sri Lanka ( former CISIR).

Dr Wilson has pioneered post harvest research activities in Sri Lanka, and was responsible for establishing the first post harvest laboratory at the ITI, for minimizing loss and servicing industry needs including maintaining the quality of horticultural produce. She has initiated and implemented many research projects, taught under graduate and post graduate students, supervised students registered for master and doctoral research degrees in national and international Universities. She has several research publications in reputed peer-reviewed scientific journals and has served on scientific committees of international conferences and symposia and has presented her research findings at several international scientific gatherings.

She was previously, Chairman of the Institute of Post Harvest Technology, Sri Lanka, and Head of the Food Technology Section at the ITI. She was appointed Deputy Director Research and Development , ITI with effect from 1^st July 2009. She continues as National coordinator of food irradiation programmes in Sri Lanka and as Chairman of the National Post Harvest Committee, of the Council for Agricultural Research Policy. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Atomic Energy Agency of Sri Lanka.

Mr. Rasika Mutucumarana

Mr. J. Charitha Ratwatte Sr.

J. Charitha Ratwatte (Snr.) is a Graduate in Law, an Attorney of Law of 37 years standing, a holder of the Post Graduate Diploma in International Relations from the Bandaranaike Center for International Studies, Sri Lanka and a holder of the certificate on Policy and Institutional Reform for Sustainable Development conducted by the World Bank Institute, Washington DC.

He has over 30 years experience as a CEO in government and in business. He retired from government service from the post of Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, Government of Sri Lanka.

Mr. Ratwatte has worked as Secretary to the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Employment on the National Youth Development program where he was instrumental is setting up the National Youth Services Savings and Credit Co-operative (NYSCO), a micro finance lender for young people to support enterprises in small-scale agriculture and agribusiness. He has also worked as the Secretary to the Ministry of Reconstruction and Rehabilitation where the use of small loans for agriculture and fisheries to internally displaced families affected by conflict as a stimulus to sustainable resettlement was developed. He was founder Managing Director of the Janasaviya Trust Fund, a poverty alleviation program of the GOSL, supported by the World Bank, UNPD and Germany’s KFW, which worked with Partner Organizations in the non government sector on rural employment, micro credit, social mobilization and nutrition programs. He as also Secretary to the Ministry of Policy Development which supervised the Department of National Planning & Secretary to the Ministry of Manpower Mobilization which focused on manpower planning and development.

Mr. Ratwatte serves on the Boards of Kelani Valley Canneries, Mahaweli Reach Hotels Ltd, Hotels Colombo Ltd., Kandy Hotels Ltd, Young Entrepreneurs of Sri Lanka Ltd. ( which implements the Junior Achievement program in Sri Lanka ) and has been a member , by invitation, of the Committee of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce since 1995.

He has been a lecturer and examiner to the Council of Legal Education of Sri Lanka, an examiner to the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo, on Constitutional Law & a resource person to the Asian Disaster Prevention Centre of the Asian Institute of Technology at Bangkok.

He is currently the Managing Director of the Sri Lanka Business Development Centre, a non profit & non stock, consulting company.

Former Board Members

Mr. Raj Subramaniam

Mr. Jayampathi D. Bandaranayake, LL.B., F.I.P.M (Sri Lanka), ICCS Sri Lanka and FCPM

Jayampathi Bandaranayake, Graduate of Law, Fellow and founder member of Institute of Chartered Corporate Secretaries of Sri Lanka and a Fellow of the Institute of Personnel Management Sri Lanka is a well-respected corporate leader. He is a past Chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and the Employer’s Federation of Ceylon, two leading industry groups that serve the private sector and advise policymakers on economic issues.

The Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC (CTC, a subsidiary of British American Tobacco), one of the biggest and best-managed blue-chip corporations in Sri Lanka, recruited Mr. Bandaranayake directly after a stellar high-school career. Following an equally successful 40-year professional career as an Executive Director at CTC, Mr. Bandaranayake serves today as Chairman of CTC’s Board of Directors. CTC operates an integrated “seed to smoke” tobacco business that encompasses the cultivation of sufficient leaf tobacco to meet local requirements through a national outgrower scheme, not to mention manufacturing and a national sales network.

Mr. Bandaranayake serves on the Boards of several diverse companies. Outreach Projects (Guarantee) Ltd works to uplift the living standards of 10,000 rural families through a sustainable agriculture project. Hayleys PLC, another leading blue-chip firm, operates outgrower programs in several of its subsidiary companies for the cultivation, processing and export of Jalapeno peppers, Gherkins, Pineapples and other products. The blue-chip Finlays PLC is a leader in the tea plantation and export sector. Other Boards that Mr. Bandaranayake serves on include those of Coca Cola Beverages Sri Lanka Ltd; West Coast Power (Pvt) Ltd; Sampath Bank PLC; and VST Industries Limited, Hyderabad, India.