Dhananath Fernando

Dhananath Fernando

Chief Executive Officer

Dhananath is the Chief Executive Officer of Advocata Institute. He is also a founding member of the Institute and had worked as Advocata’s Chief Operating Officer since its inception.

Prior to founding Advocata, Dhananath worked as an Associate Research Director at Breakthrough Business Intelligence, a leading market research agency in Sri Lanka.

He read for his Bachelor’s degree in Bio Sciences and Bio Chemistry at the University of Colombo. He is an Eisenhower Global Fellow and a member of Tik Tok Trust & Safety advisory council for South Asia.

Dhananath is also a curator and founding member of AK Lit Fest, a trilingual literary festival dedicated to showcasing local authors of Sri Lanka.

In his social responsibilities, Dhananath works with ‘people in need’ by volunteering with CandleAid Lanka, a government-approved humanitarian organisation. He was a part of a team training vison- and hearing-impaired students on swimming and safety, and the main coordinator for personality, career development, and English training for undergraduates.

Dhananath is an enthusiastic mountain climber and a trekker. He completed the Everest Base Camp in May 2018 and the Chardar Trek (one of the wildest treks based on a ranking by CNN), a frozen river at the Indian-Tibetan border in 2017

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Dr. Sujata Gamage

Dr. Sujata Gamage

Senior Research Fellow, LIRNEasia

Dr. Gamage specializes in planning, evaluation and capacity building in education, ICT in education, research and research networks, and public sector performance using data analytics, institutional research, scoping studies, systematic reviews, statistical methods and simulations. She is currently a Senior Research Fellow at LIRNEasia, a regional think tank based in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Her recent research includes an evaluation of ICT use in schools in Sri Lanka, ICT for development or ICT4D education in universities in five countries in the Asia Pacific, Indicators of workforce readiness for the 21st century in the context of ICT-enabled freelance work, and a systematic review of factors affecting the use of ICTs in the classroom by teachers. Her recent public service work includes serving as a Member of the Committee of Experts to review the roles and functions of the Department of Examination of Sri Lanka and serving as the co-convenor of the Education Forum Sri Lanka.

Her professional career includes serving as (a) Director-General of the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission of Sri Lanka, revitalizing the implementation of an ADB funded project on a national vocational qualification framework for Sri Lanka (b) Consultant to the University Grants Commission of Sri Lanka developing faculty quality ranking for the system (c) Analytic Director of a team of consultants at QRC Macro International in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, responsible for conducting and reporting on science resources for the US National Science Foundation and (d) Strategic Planning Specialist at the Ohio State University, USA, developing an academic quality scorecard for that university, and (e) Administrator of Research Support Programs at the Ohio Board of Regents, Ohio, USA.  In her previous career as a university teacher and researcher in Chemistry she has served as a member of the faculty in the University of Sri Jayewardenapura and the University of Colombo.

Sujata holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of British Columbia and a subsequent Master’s in Public Administration from the Ohio State University of USA. 

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Prof. Sirimal Abeyratne

Prof. Sirimal Abeyratne

Professor in Economics, the University of Colombo

Sirimal Abeyratne is Professor in Economics, the University of Colombo, and the current Chairman of the Monetary Policy Consultative Committee, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. He has earned his PhD from the Free University of Amsterdam, MA and MPhil degrees from International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, and Bachelor’s degree from the University of Colombo. He has been a Visiting Fellow at Universities in Japan, Vietnam, Australia, and Italy, and has served as a consultant to many international organizations, government agencies and corporate sector organizations in Sri Lanka. He is also a member of the Economic Freedom Network (EFN) Asia.  

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Dr. Sarath Rajapatirana

Dr. Sarath Rajapatirana

Chair – Academic Programme

Dr. Rajapatirana has worked across the world with leading international organizations such as the World Bank, World Trade Organisation, ITC in Geneva, and the International Cooperative Alliance in Latin America. He is a former economic advisor to H.E. the President of Sri Lanka and has advised governments and policymakers around the world. Currently he is on a leave of absence.

A widely published scholar, Dr Rajapatirana is the author and co-author of six books and fifty-five papers in refereed publications and given seminars at Stanford, Harvard and the University of California at Los Angles and other top universities in the world. He was also a scholar attached to the American Enterprise Institute, an External Examiner for PhD students at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Besides, he was a visiting Professor at the Ho Chih Minh Economics University and Angiang University in Vietnam.

During his long career at the World Bank, Dr Rajapatirana was the Director and the main author of the 1987 World Development Report on Trade and Industrialisation, Director of the Macroeconomic Comparative Study of Developing Countries, Division Chief for Trade and Industry for Latin America and the Caribbean and Economic Adviser in the Latin America Technical Department and a Member of the Editorial Board of the World Bank Economic Review. Before joining the World Bank he was the head of the Money and Banking Division of the Research Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

Currently Dr Rajapatirana is a Vice President of the Sri Lanka Economists Association (SLEA) and has served on the boards of the Institute of Policy Studies, Gamani Corea Foundation and University of Jayawardenapura Postgraduate Institute of Management Board of Studies.

A graduate from University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, Dr. Rajapatirana has two Master’s degrees in economics, from University of Massachusetts and University of Minnesota. He did his doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota (ABD) and has a PhD from the University of Colombo. His language skills are in Sinhala, English, Indonesian, Spanish and Malay.

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Murtaza Jafferjee

Murtaza Jafferjee

Chair – Advocata Institute

Murtaza Jafferjee is an investment professional with over 25 years of industry experience. He has previously been a director of the Colombo Stock Exchange, Nations Trust Bank and Serendib Hotels PLC. He was a past president of CFA Society of Sri Lanka, the local member society of the CFA Institute and also held the advocacy chair whose responsibilities include promoting good ethical practices. He has a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineer and Computer Science from the University of NSW, Australia and a Masters in Financial Economics from the University of Colombo. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

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RAZEEN SALLY

RAZEEN SALLY

Professor at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore

Razeen Sally is an Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He was on the faculty of the London School of Economics for eighteen years, where he also received his PhD. He has held adjunct teaching, research and advisory positions at universities and think tanks in the USA, Europe, Africa and Asia. He is on the Global Agenda Council for Competitiveness of the World Economic Forum, and was awarded the Hayek Medal by the Hayek Society in Germany in 2011. He is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society.

Razeen Sally’s research and teaching focuses on global trade policy and Asia in the world economy. He has written on the WTO, FTAs, and on different aspects of trade policy in Asia. He has also written on the history of economic ideas, especially the theory of commercial policy.

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ANARKALI MOONESINGHE

ANARKALI MOONESINGHE

CEO - CIMB, Sri Lanka

Anarkali has over 16 years of Investment Banking experience in Europe and Asia, particularly Asian Emerging Markets. Anarkali joined CIMB Investment Bank in Sri Lanka as the country head in September 2011. Over the past 5 years Anarkali has established CIMB as the go to investment bank for cross border transactional expertise, advising on key transactions. Prior to joining CIMB, Anarkali was a partner with Amura Consulting, a Singapore based financial advisory services boutique which focused on small to mid cap transactions in frontier markets including private equity, mergers & acquisitions, and financial structuring.

Anarkali started her career with Merrill Lynch in Mergers & Acquisitions in Singapore where she worked predominantly on cross-border transactions across the ASEAN region in a variety of industries. She then moved to Merrill Lynch Europe in London and focused on Corporate Finance transactions involving equity, equity-linked, and debt financing solutions for corporate clients across Europe.

Anarkali currently serves on the Board of Directors of Keells Hotels PLC and the Lankan Angel Network, a platform for angel and private investors who invest in high growth early stage Sri Lankan ventures.
Anarkali received a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Christ Church College, University of Oxford.

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FRANK LAVIN

FRANK LAVIN

Chairman & CEO - Export Now

Frank Lavin is the Chairman of the Public Affairs Practice for Edelman Asia Pacific, working with companies across the region as they grapple with regulatory challenges and sensitive government relations issues.

In Government, Lavin served as Under Secretary for International Trade at the U.S. Department of Commerce 2005-2007.  In that capacity, Lavin served as lead trade negotiator for both China and India and was the senior policy official in the Department responsible for commercial policy, export promotion, and trade negotiations across the globe.  Lavin was U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Singapore from 2001-05, where his duties included helping negotiate the landmark U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement.

In the private sector, Lavin served in senior finance and management positions in Hong Kong and Singapore with Cushman & Wakefield Investors Asia, Bank of America, and Citibank.

Earlier in his career, Lavin served in the George H.W. Bush and Reagan Administrations, working in the Department of Commerce, Department of State, National Security Council, and White House.  Lavin served as Director of the Office of Political Affairs in the White House 1987-89.

Lavin earned a B.S. from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University; a M.S. in Chinese Language from Georgetown University; a M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from the School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University; and a M.B.A. in Finance at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

He has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and other periodicals.

Lavin is the co-author of “Export Now” (2011), a featured title by John Wiley & Sons.  He was Editor of “Rising to the Challenge” (EDM 2010), the official book of the USA Pavilion at the Shanghai 2010 Expo.

Lavin currently serves on the Board of Directors of Globe Specialty Metals, the world’s largest producer of silicon metal alloys, Consistel, the largest telecommunications firm for in-building services in Southeast Asia, UOB Bank a Singapore-based regional bank, and UTEX, a Houston-based energy services firm.  He also served as Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Shanghai 2010 World Expo USA Pavilion. 

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FREDRIK ERIXON

FREDRIK ERIXON

Director - ECIPE

Fredrik Erixon is a Swedish economist and writer. He is the Director of the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE), a world-economy think tank based in Brussels he co-founded in 2006 together with Professor Razeen Sally. Since then Erixon has led the development of ECIPE to become one of Brussels leading research-based institutes. One of the leading world economy think tanks in the world, ECIPE has been awarded with several prizes. In 2010 the Financial Times ranked Erixon as one of Brussels 30 most influential people.

Fredrik Erixon is the author of several books and studies in the fields of international economics, economic policy, and regulatory affairs (welfare reforms, healthcare competition policy, et cetera). He has also advised several governments in Europe and the rest of the world, and is a frequent speaker at conferences.Prior to starting ECIPE, Erixon was an Adviser to the British government and the Chief Economist of Timbro, a Swedish think tank. He started his career as an economist in the Prime Ministers Office in Sweden and has later worked as an economist at the World Bank and for JP Morgan as an emerging market analyst. Erixon was educated at the University of Oxford, London School of Economics and Uppsala University.

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HENRY ERGAS

HENRY ERGAS

Professor of Infrastructure Economics at the University of Wollongong

Professor Ergas held a range of leading positions at the OECD before returning to Australia in the mid-1990s. He chaired the Australian Intellectual Property and Competition Review Committee for the Australian Government in 1999-2000 and was a member of the Prime Minister’s Export Infrastructure Task Force in 2005 and the Defence Industry Policy Review in 2006. He has published extensively on infrastructure regulation and cost-benefit analysis.

As well as his work at the OECD, Professor Ergas’ career includes appointments with the National University of Singapore, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the Centre for Research in Network Economics and Communications at the University of Auckland, Monash University and at the Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Economique in Paris.

Henry is the inaugural Professor of Infrastructure Economics at SMART where his focus is on the economic, regulatory and public policy research program. He takes a special interest in the development and application of cost-benefit analysis and in the analysis of pricing and investment decisions in regulated infrastructure industries. Professor Ergas is also a regular columnist in The Australian.

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NISHAN DE MEL

NISHAN DE MEL

Executive Director  - Verite Research

Nishan de Mel is the Executive Director and Head of Research of Verité Research, a think tank that provides analytical research and advisory services on economic, political and legal issues in Sri Lanka and Asia. He is an economist with extensive academic, policy, and private sector experience. He has been a Member of the Presidential Task Force on Health Sector Reform, Presidential Committee on Tobacco, Alcohol and Dangerous Drug Regulation, and the National Steering Committee on Social Security. He has also served as the Executive Director of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) and on the Board of the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute. 

Internationally, Nishan has held several governing, teaching, and research positions, including as Lecturer in Economics at Oxford University. He earned his masters and doctoral degrees in Economics at the University of Oxford where he was a Chevening Scholar and his undergraduate degree in Economics from Harvard University.

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PARTH J SHAH

PARTH J SHAH

President  - Centre for Civil Society, India

Parth J. Shah is founder president of the Centre for Civil Society. CCS advances social change through public policy. Their work in education, livelihood, and policy training promotes choice and accountability across the private and public sectors. To translate policy into practice, CCS engages with policy and opinion leaders through research, pilot projects and advocacy.

Parth taught economics at the University of Michigan before returning to India to start CCS. He has published academic articles in the areas of development economics, welfare economics, business-cycle theory, free or laissez-faire banking, and currency-board systems. He has edited Morality of Markets, Friedman on India, Profiles in Courage: Dissent on Indian Socialism, Do Corporations have Social Responsibility?, and co-edited Law, Liberty, and Livelihood, The Terracotta Reader, and Agenda for Change. He writes regularly in newspapers and magazines.

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PREMA-CHANDRA ATHUKORALA

PREMA-CHANDRA ATHUKORALA

Professor of Economics,  Australian National University

Prema-chandra Athukorala is Professor of Economics in Arndt-Corden Department of Economics,  College of Asia and The Pacific at the Australian National University, Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and Honarary Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Manchester.  His publications include Trade Policy Issues in Asian Development (Rutledge, 1998), Structural Adjustment and labour Migration in East Asia (Oxford University Press).  Liberalization and Industrial Adjustment: Sri Lanka in International Perspective (Oxford University Press, 2000), Saving, Investment and Growth in India (Oxford University Press, 2002), Crisis and Recovery in Malaysia: The Role of Capital Controls(Edward Elgar 2003), Multinational Enterprises in Asian Development (Edward Elgar 2007), five other books, and over 150  papers in scholarly journals and multi-author volumes.  At various times he has served as a consultant to the World Bank, ADB, ILO, UNDP, UNIDO, UNCTAD, ESCAP and the Australian Agency for International Development.  These assignments have resulted in work on, inter alia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Jordan and Georgia.

Career highlights

Honarary Professorial Research Fellow, University of Manchester (since 2012); Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia since 2003; Assistant Editor of Asian Economic Papers and editorial board member of ASEAN Economic Bulletin and Journal of South Asian Development; Consultant to the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, International Labour Organization, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific and the government of Sri Lanka; Visiting Scholar/Professor: Hitotsubashi University, Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University, University of East Anglia and University of Malaya; listed in The Australian Who's Who since 2005.

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REUBEN ABRAHAM

REUBEN ABRAHAM

CEO - IDFC Institute

Dr. Reuben Abraham is CEO and Senior Fellow at IDFC Institute, a think/do tank set up by India’s largest infrastructure finance company. He is also on IDFC Institute's Executive Council. IDFC Institute's focus is on the political, economic, and spatial causes and consequences of, and obstacles to, India’s ongoing transformation from a low income, state led economy to a market based democracy, a journey many emerging markets share. He is also a non-resident scholar at the Urbanization Project at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Before IDFC, he was on the Faculty and Executive Director of the Centre for Emerging Markets Solutions (CEMS) at the Indian School of Business (ISB), where he continues to serve on the Next Generation Leaders Board of the school.

Dr. Abraham was a Legatum Global Fellow for 2013; in 2012, he was named to Wired Magazine’s “Smart List 2012: 50 people who will change the world.” He was selected as a Young Global Leader for 2009 by the World Economic Forum, where he serves on the Global Agenda Council on Emerging Multinationals.

He is a member of the international advisory board of Unicredit Bank of Italy; the board of the Centre for Civil Society, India’s leading classical liberal think tank; and THNK, The Amsterdam School of Creative Leadership. He is an independent director of the Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF), a fund that makes catalytic investments across emerging markets. Under the aegis of SEDF, he helped set up SONG, a unique India-focused early stage SME venture fund with Google and Omidyar Network as co-investors. A TED Global Fellow in 2007, he now sits on the TED Fellows Advisory Board. He is also on the board of First Home Realty Solutions, which builds low-income housing across India; RenewGen, a waste-to-energy company; and the DLF Foundation.

He completed his M.A., M.Phil and Ph.D. from Columbia University. During his time at Columbia, he was an Associate Fellow in Global Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Fellow of the Public Policy Consortium and a Sloan Foundation/CITI Telecommunications Fellow.

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ROHAN SAMARAJIVA

ROHAN SAMARAJIVA

Chairman - Lirneasia

Rohan Samarajiva is founding Chair of LIRNEasia, an ICT policy and regulation think tank active across emerging Asia and the Pacific. He was CEO from 2004 to 2012. His most recent book (2012) is in Sinhala and is entitled “Economic strategies appropriate for us.”

Samarajiva was Team Leader at the Sri Lanka Ministry for Economic Reform, Science and Technology (2002-04) responsible for infrastructure reforms, including participation in the design of the USD 83 million e Sri Lanka Initiative. He was Director General of Telecommunications in Sri Lanka (1998-99), a founder director of the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (2003-05), Honorary Professor at the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka (2003-04), Visiting Professor of Economics of Infrastructures at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands (2000-03) and Associate Professor of Communication and Public Policy at the Ohio State University in the US (1987-2000). Samarajiva was Policy Advisor to the Ministry of Post and Telecom in Bangladesh (2006-09).

He serves as Senior Advisor to Sarvodaya (Sri Lanka’s largest community based organization) on ICT matters and on the Steering Committee on Infrastructure Development of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. Samarajiva is a Board Member of Communication Policy Research south, an initiative to identify and foster policy intellectuals in emerging Asia. He is a member of the Board and former Chair of the Lanka Software Foundation and Board Member of Research ICT Africa. He serves on the editorial boards of five academic journals.

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SURI RATNAPALA

SURI RATNAPALA

Emeritus Professor at The University of Queensland

Suri Ratnapala is Emeritus Professor at The University of Queensland and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. He holds the degrees of LLB (Colombo); LLM (Macquarie) and PhD (Qld), and teaches constitutional law and jurisprudence. 

He has received fellowships from the prestigious international research centres, the Institute of Humane Studies, George Mason University, Virginia, the Social Philosophy and Policy Centre of the Bowling Green State University, Ohio and the International Centre for Economic Research, Turin, Italy. 

In 1998, his work received further recognition when he was elected to the membership of the Mont Pelerin Society, the international grouping of liberal intellectuals. In 2000, he received a John Templeton Foundation Award for his course 'Advanced Constitutional Law and Theory', granted 'on the basis of uniqueness, innovation, and interdisciplinarity and the balance of political, economic and social theory’. 

In 2003 he was awarded a Centenary of Australian Federation Medal by the Governor-General of Australia for his contribution to Australian society through research in law and economics. In 2007 Professor Ratnapala was made an Alan McGregor Fellow of the Centre for Independent Studies.

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