Avinya Foundation

Organization Members

Sanjiva Weerawarana

Organization Member, Founder and Chairman

Sanjiva is the CEO and Founder of WSO2, an enterprise technology provider for integrating application programming interfaces, applications..

Indrajit Coomaraswamy

Organization Member

Indrajit was the 14th Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), from 2016 to 2019. As a career economist at CBSL since 1973, Indrajit has bee…

Tara de Mel

Organization Member

Tara was the Secretary to the Ministry of Education and Higher Education of Sri Lanka. At the ministry, she led three Presidential Task Forces on Gen…

Anarkali Moonesinghe

Organization Member

Anarkali is an Investment Banker, with deep experience in Asian Emerging Markets. Anarkali was the Sri Lanka country CEO for CIMB Group, estab…

Ashroff Omar

Organization Member

Ashroff is the Group CEO of Brandix (Ltd). He has been instrumental in redefining the apparel manufacturing industry in Sri Lanka over the last..

Kasturi Chellerajah Wilson

Organization Member

Kasturi is the Group CEO and Director of Hemas Holdings PLC. With the mission to help families live healthfully, Hemas operates prim…

Sanjiva Weerawarana

Organization Member, Founder and Chairman

Sanjiva is the CEO and Founder of WSO2, an enterprise technology provider for integrating application programming interfaces, applications, and web services locally & across the internet. He is also the Founder and Chairman of the Lanka Software Foundation (LSF). LSF was founded to promote the development of Open Source Software in Sri Lanka. Before starting WSO2 in 2005, he was a Research Scientist at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in New York.

He was elected to the IBM Academy of Technology in 2003. Sanjiva was the original creator of Apache SOAP, and is an elected member of the Apache Software Foundation. Sanjiva was elected to the board of the Open Source Initiative (OSI) in 2005, where he served for two years. He is a member of the Faculty of Engineering Industry Consultative Board at the University of Moratuwa, where he was a visiting lecturer in the 2000s. Sanjiva also serves on the Board of Directors at Sampath Bank PLC.

Sanjiva has a B.S. and M.S. in Applied Mathematics from Kent State University, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Purdue University.

Indrajit Coomaraswamy

Organization Member

Indrajit was the 14th Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), from 2016 to 2019. As a career economist at CBSL since 1973, Indrajit has been a staff officer in Economic Research, Statistics, and the Bank Supervision divisions. From 1981 to 1989, he was seconded to the Ministry of Finance and Planning as an advisor on Macroeconomic Policy and Structural Reform. In 1990, Indrajit joined the Commonwealth Secretariat, where he went on to serve as the Interim Director of Social Transformation programs at the organization.

Indrajit was a member of the CBSL Monetary Policy Consultative Committee from 2013 to 2015, and was an advisor to the Ministry of Development Strategy and International Trade from 2015 to 2016. Additionally, he was also on the Board of Directors of John Keells Holdings PLC and Tokyo Cement Company (LK) PLC.

Indrajit has a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Cambridge, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Sussex.

Tara de Mel

Organization Member

Tara was the Secretary to the Ministry of Education and Higher Education of Sri Lanka. At the ministry, she led three Presidential Task Forces on General Education, University Education, and Tertiary & Vocational Education. She also served two terms as a member of the Board of the Commonwealth of Learning, in Vancouver.

Since 2016, Tara has assisted in designing programs for introducing mindfulness-based initiates for values, ethics, integrity, and respect for diversity to schools across the island. In 2019, she received the “Sikhamani” award from the Government of Sri Lanka for service to the nation. Presently, she is a member of the Global Consultative Group of Mindfulness initiative in the UK.

Tara has an M.Phil. from the University of London, and an M.D. from the University of Colombo.

Anarkali Moonesinghe

Organization Member

Anarkali is an Investment Banker, with deep experience in Asian Emerging Markets. Anarkali was the Sri Lanka country CEO for CIMB Group, establishing the group as a market leader in the space. Before CIMB, Anarkali was a partner with Amura Consulting, a financial advisory services boutique focused on small to mid-cap transactions in frontier markets across the Private Equity, M&A, and Financial Restructuring domains.

She began her career with Merrill Lynch (currently Merrill, the Investment and Wealth Management division of the Bank of America) in Singapore, where she focused on cross-border transactions in ASEAN markets. Anarkali also worked on equity, equity-linked, and debt financing solutions for corporate clients across Europe in London. She currently serves on the board of John Keells Hotels, and the Lankan Angel Network, Sri Lanka’s largest network of Angel Investors.

Anarkali has an M.A. in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from the University of Oxford.

Ashroff Omar

Organization Member

Ashroff is the Group CEO of Brandix (Ltd). He has been instrumental in redefining the apparel manufacturing industry in Sri Lanka over the last four decades, and has led Brandix to becoming one of Sri Lanka’s largest and most sustainable apparel manufacturers. Brandix has committed to reaching 100% carbon neutrality by 2023. Brandix was also awarded the world’s first LEED Platinum certification for its Seeduwa facility.

He is a Senior Member at the Society of Plastics Engineers, and a Member of the Textile Institute. Ashroff serves on the Board of Directors at John Keells Holdings PLC, and many other Brandix subsidiaries. He is also the Founder and Chair of the Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF), the representative body of the Sri Lankan Apparel industry.

Kasturi Chellerajah Wilson

Organization Member

Kasturi is the Group CEO and Director of Hemas Holdings PLC. With the mission to help families live healthfully, Hemas operates primarily in the Consumer Goods, Healthcare, and Mobility sectors. A publicly listed corporation, Hemas employs over 5000 people, with operations in Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. Kasturi is the first female CEO of a publicly listed corporation in Sri Lanka.

She is also the President of the Sri Lanka Chamber of the Pharmaceutical Industry, and serves on the committee of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. Kasturi is also a Non-Executive Director of Capital Alliance Limited, and a Board Member of several other Hemas subsidiaries in the Healthcare and Consumer sectors.

Kasturi is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, and is an alumni of the Senior Executive Leadership Program at the Harvard School of Business.