Pradeep Kariyawasam

Pradeepa Gamini Suraj Kariyawasam is a Sri Lankan businessmen. Former Chairman of the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation and the National Savings Bank of Sri Lanka he is the husband of Shirani Bandaranayake, 43rd Chief Justice of Sri Lanka. He was arrested and charged with bribery in 2013.

Educated at the Royal College, Colombo, he was the vice-captain of his college cricket team and played in the Royal-Thomian.

A specialist in marketing, Kariyawasam is a management consultant. Prior to his appointment as Chairman of the National Savings Bank he had served as a manager at Unimo Enterprise, United Motors Lanka (Ltd), Browns Group of Companies and Ceylinco Ltd.

In June 2009 the Supreme Court issued as order to the Treasury Secretary to appoint a board of directors for the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (SLIC) after the governmental takeover. The Government nominated him as the new chairman of the board.

During his tenure at SLIC chairman (2009–2010) Kariyawasam ran into a dispute with the board of directors over alleged violation of procedures. The Treasury Secretary of Sri Lanka, Dr P.B. Jayasundera intervened to settle this and warned kariyawasam against overstepping his powers as a non-executive chairman of the Board.

In May 2012 the investment committee of SLIC and its partner EPF got treasury approval for the strategic purchase of 16% of NDB shares to be executed by the purchase of Gold Quest and its parcel of shares of the bank. This company was owned by Vijay Eswaran. An attractive price was on offered for both institutes. At that point two old buddies Ajith Devasurendra and Ishara Nanayakkara got Pradeep Kariywasam to write to the parties concerned that SLIC has agreed to allocate 7% of these shares to LOLC, something that came as a surprise to all. Had not the other Directors objected, LOLC would have made a windfall from the special price SLIC managed to negotiate for this parcel of NDB shares.By his actions Kariyawasam attempted to create a potential gain of Rs. 72 Million for a private, unrelated company at the cost of government agencies. A clear case of insider trading was avoided due to the prompt action of SLIC Directors.

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