Former Senior Advisor to the Finance Ministry and the first Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Strategic Enterprises Management Agency (SEMA), Mano Tittawella passed away in Melbourne Australia today.

Tittawella was the Senior Presidential Advisor on Economic Affairs and was the Senior Director General – President’s Office under President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga from August 2003 to November 2005.

He was also a former Chairman of the Insurance Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka and Board Member of SriLankan Airlines Ltd.

Tittawella was the Secretary General of the Secretariat for Coordinating Reconciliation Mechanisms (SCRM), which is entrusted with coordinating transitional justice mechanisms in Sri Lanka.

Apart from serving on the Board of National Council for Economic Development (NCED), which was the apex body, coordinating all economic development activities in Sri Lanka, he served as Chairman of the Task Force to Rebuild the Nation (TAFREN), which was set-up to handle post-tsunami reconstruction and recovery of the country.

Tittawella has held many other key positions in the State sector, such as Director-General of Public Enterprises Reform Commission (PERC) – the then privatisation agency of the Government of Sri Lanka and Chairman of People’s Bank, along with many board positions in some of Sri Lanka’s largest state sector enterprises. Tittawella has over 35 years’ experience in senior positions in the private sector as well.

He has an MBA in Capital Markets & Finance, from the University of Edinburgh and a Post-graduate Diploma in Human-Computer Interaction from the British Open University. He was also a Member of the International Board of Trustees (IBT) of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) UK, from 2000 to 2003.