CDS - Key Persons
Mr. Herath has extensive industry experience of over two decades in serving numerous clients in the Public Sector and in the Private Sector and actively involved in areas of Economy, Capital Markets, Investments, Corporate Transformation & Restructuring, Corporate Planning, Performance Improvement, Corporate Governance, Technology, Accounting, Auditing, Professional Accountancy Organizations
Well known ICT industry veteran and experienced business leader Channa de Silva currently functions as the Chief Executive Officer of LankaPay, which he took over in December 2015. Mr. de Silva has been instrumental for the phenomenal growth achieved by the company in promoting digital payments and spearheaded the introduction of several innovative payment solutions during his tenure. He is also a member of the National Payment Council of the Central Bank, a Board Member of Sri Lanka CERT and the Central Depository System (CDS) of the CSE, Vice Chairman of FITIS and a member of the National Certification Authority Task Force.
Mr. de Silva counts for over 30 years' experience encompassing a spectrum of industries and had served in several leading multinational and local organizations as well.
He goes down in history as Sri Lanka's first ever webmaster with the development of Sri Lanka's first commercial web site http://www.lanka.net/ (1994) and the engineer responsible for the establishment of the first ever dedicated Internet connection in Sri Lanka in 1995. Some of the major projects implemented under his leadership include the first online newspaper in the South Asia region (Daily News in 1995); first radio station on-line (TNL Radio in 1996) and first ever Wi-Fi network in the country; He was also a member of the local language workgroup of Sri Lanka and contributed immensely towards enabling people to use technology in local languages. He also played a pivotal role in ensuring that a Language Interface Pack was built in Sinhala and Tamil for Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office in 2007. He was recognized for his contributions by the Internet Society as a technology pioneer in 2015.
Prior to joining LankaPay, he headed the Sri Lankan and Maldivian operations of multinational ICT consultancy company Thakral One as the Senior Vice President. He was orchestral in introducing IBM's software universe to Sri Lanka and developing IBM's software business during his tenure as the DGM - Software Group of IBM Sri Lanka. Mr. de Silva also served as the Director - Enterprise Business and Public Sector at Microsoft Sri Lanka where he led the company through an unprecedented growth. His outstanding achievements were rewarded via the Microsoft Gold Club Excellence Award for exceptional performance and the Microsoft Share Fighter Champion for winning against competition.
An Old boy of Royal Collage Colombo, Mr. de Silva obtained his BSc. (Honours) and MSc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the State University of New York, USA specialized in Data Communication. He also holds an MBA from the Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) Sri Lanka and the distinguished memberships at the IEEE (USA), Tau Beta Pai (USA), Eta Kappa Nu (USA) and Golden Key (USA) for academic excellence.
Mr. Jayantha Fernando pioneered drafting of Sri Lanka's digital laws, including Electronic transactions, Digital Payments, Cybercrime as well as Data Protection and Cyber Security Legislation. Drafted the Legal blueprint for the establishment of ICT Agency, Sri Lanka CERT and the use of authentication technologies at national and sectoral level at Lanka Clear, through Central Bank.
He led Sri Lanka's entry to the Budapest Cybercrime Convention and Sri Lanka's ratification of the UN Electronic Communications Convention (UN eCC) in 2015, both firsts for South Asia. Expert for UNCITRAL, Council of Europe and World Bank advising countries formulate Digital Laws.
Mr. Fernando holds a specialized Masters in Law (LLM) in IT & Telecommunications Law from the University London, read on a Chevening Scholarship awarded by UK Government.
Mr. Kosala Gamage has considerable experience in the Sri Lankan stock market with over 27 years of experience in handling local and foreign investments.
MR. Ray Abeywardena has been associated with Sri Lanka's capital markets for over 33 years, primarily as a Stockbroker and since 2009 as an Investment Banker.
He is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK) and holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Wales.
Job Titles:
- Member of the SEC Committee on Takeovers and Mergers, Member of Corporate Governance Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants