17 July 2017 10:25 am
D. M. N. P. Karunapala has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer to Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka and Finance PLC with effect from 17 July 2017.
Karunapala possesses over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. He received his MBA - Banking and Finance from the Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM), BSc - Business Administration (Special) Degree from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and a Postgraduate Level Diploma in Modern Commercial Banking from PIM. He also holds a Membership of the Certified Management Accountants (Australia). His core expertise lies in the areas of finance leasing, trade and project finance, factoring, credit, recoveries, business development, corporate strategy, systems and process development and risk management.
Commencing his career at A. Baur and Co. Ltd, he moved to the financial services industry first at the Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka and subsequently at Seylan Merchant Bank and Mercantile Leasing Ltd. He served a nine-year period at Orient Finance PLC since its inception in 2003, in the capacities of Assistant General Manager (Operations) and Deputy General Manager, having playing a lead role in founding the entity.
Karunapala was Director/Chief Executive Officer of Melsta Regal Finance Ltd, a subsidiary of Melsta Corp PLC, for over five years since its inception in 2012.
Karunapala has studied the systems and operational procedures of reputed financial institutions in Ireland, UK, Singapore, India and the Philippines. He has represented international training programmes in Ireland, UK, Japan and the Philippines.
He is currently a Council Member of the Financial Houses Association (FHA) and a Director of the Leasing Association of Sri Lanka (LASL). He has previously served two terms as Chairman of the LASL. He was also a committee member of Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and a former Director of the Credit Information Bureau of Sri Lanka (CRIB).