Asite Talwatte joins Cargills board

Cargills (Ceylon) PLC has announced the appointment of Asite Talwatte as an Independent Non-Executive Director of the Company with effect from August 28.

He fills the vacancy created by the resignation of Deva Rodrigo, who attained 75 years of age and did not want to be re-elected at the 2020 AGM held last week. 

With the latest changes, the Board of Directors of Cargills (Ceylon) PLC comprises L.R. Page (Chairman), V.R. Page (Deputy Chairman and CEO), M.I. Wahid (Managing Director and Deputy CEO), A.A. Page, A.T.P. Edirisinghe, S.E.C. Gardiner, J.C. Page, E.A.D. Perera, S. Mendis, Y. Kanagasabai, H.A. Pieris, I.C. Malwatte, and A. Talwatte.

Talwatte is a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICASL) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants of the UK. He also holds a post-graduate diploma in business and financial administration, awarded by the ICASL and the University of Wageningen, Holland and has a MBA from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka.  He has also participated in a Kellogg Executive Programme at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. 

Talwatte worked at Ernst & Young in Assurance, Business Risk and Advisory Services for 37 years, including 10 years as Country Managing Partner.

 He has worked with Ernst & Young in Cleveland, Ohio and also served on Ernst & Young’s Far-East Area Executive Committee, the Area Advisory Council and the ASEAN Leadership Committee.

Talwatte was President of the CA Sri Lanka from 2002-2003 and the CIMA in 1995-1996. He also served as the Chairman of the Statutory Accounting Standards Committee and the Auditing Standards Committee, the Urgent Issues Task Force and the Examinations Committee of the ICAS.

Talwatte has been closely associated with the development of Corporate Governance in Sri Lanka being actively involved with the Code of Audit Committees in 2002 and the Code of Corporate Governance in 2003.

He co-chaired the committees to structure the revised Codes of Corporate Governance of 2008, 2012 and 2017 and the Listing Rules of 2008. He currently chairs the International Integrated Reporting Council of Sri Lanka (IIRSL) on behalf of CA Sri Lanka.

Talwatte serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director on boards of several
listed companies.