Marking another first in the history of the Colombo Stock Exchange, an active Member of Parliament (MP) has been appointed to the board of directors of a listed entity.
Touchwood Investment PLC, an agro-forestry investment firm yesterday announced that it has appointed ruling party MP Duminda Romello Silva who is also a businessman, to its board of directors as a Non-Executive/Independent Director with effect from
yesterday.
Along with Silva, Lanka Wijendra Kiwlegedara, founder/Deputy Chairman/Chief Operations Director of Woolim Lanka (Pvt) Ltd and MD of Asian Investments & Mercantile Services (Pvt) Ltd are also been appointed as Executive Directors of the company.

According to analysts, these appointments may have been carried out by the existing board of directors of Touchwood under the articles of the company. Touchwood doesn’t have a controlling shareholder.
Touchwood has in fact seen a fair amount of appointments and resignations of directors since February this year.
On February 8, 2013, Hussain Buhary was appointed a Non-Executive/Independent Director of Touchwood, but he resigned from the board with effect from June 18, 2013.
Swarna Maloney was appointed Vice Chairperson of Touchwood with effect from April2, 2013 along with Charles Nazerias Jeffry Ebert as Chief Executive Officer with effect from April 4.
Later, Swarna Maloney was appointed CEO/Vice Chairman Touchwood with the resignation of Charles Nazerias Jeffry Ebert, effective June 20.
Another board member, Janath Sohitha Olaboduwa resigned from the board with effect from May 7. It was also announced that board member Prageeth Bandara Herath had resigned from the board with effect from June 20. Indrajith Upul Peiris was appointed Director with effect from June 21.
The present Touchwood director board consists of: Roscoe Maloney (Chariman), Swarna Maloney (Vice Chairperson), L.L Kulatunga (Independent Director), Indrajith Upul Peiris, A.R. Perera, Duminda Romello Silva (Non-Executive Independent Director) and L.W. Kiwlegedara (Executive Director).
Meanwhile the company in May announced that E-Channelling CEO Ruwan Silva was appointed as Principal Consultant and Advisor to the board.