Top professionals Johann Wijesinghe and Prof. Arjuna de Silva had been appointed to the SriLankan Airlines Board of Directors recently increasing the total of the Board to 7 Directors. The two will join the current board lead by former banker and former ministry secretary Ranjith Fernando, Mano Tittawella, Susantha Katugampala, Dr. Roshan Perera and Kapila Jayampathi in restructuring the national carrier.

Johann Wijesinghe worked at the national carrier – Sri Lankan Airlines previously for 19 years in which he held several senior positions at SriLankan Airlines including management positions in Europe, Middle East, the Far East and the Head Office in Colombo and was also a member of the Group Senior Management Team of the airline. He headed the SriLankan office in London, was Singapore and Indonesia manager prior to that and was the head of SriLankan Worldwide Cargo Operations at the time he resigned in October 2008 with the departure of the Emirates management. At present, Johann is the Managing Director of Hayleys Aviation and Travels and Alufab Plc. He joined Hayleys Group in 2008 and was appointed to the Group Management Committee in 2011. He holds an MBA from the University of Leicester (UK) and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK).

Prof. Arjuna de Silva is Oxford-educated and the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Anti-Doping Agency (SLADA). De Silva, 52, has experience as an administrator and a regulator. He was a Director of the Consumer Affairs Authority and a physician by profession in addition to being a university don and a sports medicine expert. He has been a physician at international sporting events, including the London Olympics and has been a member of the medical advisory panel of Sri Lanka Cricket since 2015. He obtained an MRCP (UK) in 2010, MSc from the University of Oxford in 2001, FCCP in 2009 and FRCP (London) in 2010.