United Motors Lanka PLC (UML) has appointed Independent Non-Executive Director Devaka Cooray as the Chairman of the Company with effect from 27 July. 

He succeeds Sunil Wijesinha who retired after serving as UML’s Chairman since July 2013.

Cooray is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants of the United Kingdom.

He has worked with Ernst & Young for over 40 years of which 30 years was as a Senior Assurance and Talent Partner. He functioned as the Deputy Managing Partner from 2016 to 2019 and served as a member of Ernst & Young’s Management Committee from the time the Management Committee was established in 1998 until his retirement in 2019.

He was instrumental in establishing the Ernst & Young Practice in the Republic of Maldives in 1995 and functioned as the Partner responsible for the overall management of the Maldivian Practice from its inception. He represented Sri Lanka and Maldives for a number of years in the EY ASEAN Regional Partner Forum.

He was seconded to EY USA for a year, where practical experience was gained by being part of assurance teams that performed audit engagements on several large enterprises.

Cooray also spearheaded the Ernst and Young Sri Lanka/ Maldives Family Business Centre for Excellence which was instrumental in sending several eminent second generation family members to business schools worldwide. He has also served as a member of the Council of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants UK.