Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne's Profile

Gehan graduated in Civil Engineering from Imperial College London. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, one of the Big Four firms of international accountants. He worked for five years in their Financial and Securities Industries Group which specialised in the audit of banks, stock brokers, unit trusts, etc.

He then worked in the London International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE) developing PC based techniques for trawling trade data for rule violations and also led systems audits to member firms. This was followed by joining the risk management team of the derivatives subsidiary of Sumitomo Bank and the preparation of daily Value at Risk reports and developing other risk management processes. He was then recruited to the group risk team of Abbey National, then the fourth largest retail bank in the UK. He was part of a team, whose remit was to be the eyes and ears of the board, particularly in the management of the risk from derivative products. He reviewed all the monthly board papers, ALCO and Risk Committee papers seen by the board. He worked in the City of London for over ten years in banking and financial services.

On his return to Sri Lanka he was a part of the senior management team which set up Nations Trust Bank. His last 9 years have been with Jetwing where he has migrated his banking and finance skills into tourism.. He has a unique blend of science, finance, marketing and PR skills which has helped to position Sri Lanka as a top wildlife destination.

Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne has published over fifteen books and had over two hundred and fifty articles published locally and overseas. He has become a leading publicist for Sri Lanka. With his team, he has played a pivotal role in introducing Leopard Safaris, The Gathering (of Elephants), Best for Blue (Blue & Sperm Whales), Primate Safaris, Butterfly and Dragonfly Watching to the vocabulary of Sri Lankan Tourism.