With the retirement of Chairperson Mr. Susantha Ratnayake on December 31st 2018, further to 4 decades of service at John Keells Group, we are pleased to announce the following appointments, with effect from January 1st 2019.

 Mr. Krishan Balendra as Chairperson of John Keells Holdings PLC and Mr. Gihan Cooray will assume office as Deputy Chairperson in addition to his role as Group Finance Director of John Keells Holdings PLC.

Resumes of Messrs, Balendra and Cooray are given below

Krishan Balendra was appointed as Deputy Chairperson of JKH on January 1st 2018 and as an Executive Director of JKH in November 2016. He is also the former Chairperson of Nations Trust Bank PLC and was previously the President of the Leisure and Retail Industry Groups of JKH. Mr. Balendra joined JKH in 2002 as Head of Corporate Finance after stints at UBS Warburg, Hong Kong in Investment Banking and Aitken Spence Sri Lanka in Corporate Finance. Mr. Balendra, a former Chairperson of the Colombo Stock Exchange, holds a law degree (LLB) from the University of London and an MBA from INSEAD. He is also the Honorary Consul General of the Republic of Poland in Sri Lanka and a Member of the Main Committee of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce

Gihan Cooray appointed as Group Finance Director of JKH on January 1st 2018. He is the Chairperson of Nations Trust Bank PLC and is an Executive Director of JKH since November 2016. Mr. Cooray holds an MBA from the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University, Houston, Texas. He is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, UK, a Certified Management Accountant of the Institute of Certified Management Accountants, Australia and a Diploma holder in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK. He serves as a Member of the Sub-Committee on Economic, Fiscal and Policy Planning of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.