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.