Two senior professionals have been appointed to the new SriLankan Airlines board tasked with restructuring the loss-making national carrier and returning it to profitability, officials said.
Joining the board is Johann Wijesinghe, a senior corporate executive and former SriLankan staffer and Professor Arjuna de Silva, a medical doctor who is also chairman of the Sri Lanka Anti-Doping Agency (SLADA).
Wijesinghe, who turns 55 next month, is managing director of the Aviation Sector at the Hayleys Group and Alufab PLC, a company in the Hayleys conglomerate, and is on the board of 17 other private companies. He had previously served at SriLankan Airlines for nearly two decades.
He left SriLankan Airlines in 2008 with the exit of Emirates management and joined a company under Hayleys where he was responsible for freight forwarding as well as airline passenger handling operations.
Wijesinghe, who has an MBA from the University of Leicester, UK, brings with him vast experience in all aspects of cargo and passenger handling, marketing and customer relations that would be vital to revive the ailing national carrier.
He has also had an illustrious sporting record in rugby, cricket, boxing and athletics at St. Thomas’ Mt Lavinia, having earned college colours.
The latest addition to the board, Oxford-educated de Silva, 52, is a former chairman of George Steuart Finance and had also been a director of the Consumer Affairs Authority.
He is a consulting physician by profession in addition to being a university don and a sports medicine expert.
He has been a physician at international sporting events, including the London Olympics and is a member of the medical advisory panel of Sri Lanka Cricket since 2015.
He has also been a captain of rowing at S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia and is also a karate purple belt. He has represented Sri Lanka in rowing.
De Silva and Wijesinghe will make up the new seven-member Sri Lankan board headed by Ranjith Fernando, a former banker and a public servant with administrative expertise.
Other members of the board are: Mano Tittawella, Susantha Katugampala, Roshan Dr.Perera and Kapila Jayampathi.