Faizal Salieh elected Sri Lanka Institute of Directors Chairman

From left: Faizal Salieh - Chairman SLID, Viraj Dayaratne – Chairman, Securities & Exchange Commission, and Ajith Nivard Cabraal – State Minister of Finance, Capital Markets and State Enterprise Reforms

Faizal Salieh was unanimously elected as the Chairman of The Sri Lanka Institute of Directors (SLID) for the year 2021/22 at the fully virtual Annual Membership Meeting held on August 11th.

Faizal is a veteran banker with many years of leadership experience as a Board director across several industries in banking, insurance, fund management, stockbroking, trading, manufacturing, and education.

Arosh Nanayakkara and Dinesh Weerakkody were elected as Senior Vice Chairperson and Vice Chairman respectively.

Prakash Schaffter, VishGovindasamy, Dilshan Rodrigo, Nadija Tambiah,.Aruni Rajakarier, Ravi Abeysuriya, Manohari Abeyesekera and CharakaPerera were elected to the Governing Council with Rasakanth Rasiah, the Immediate Past Chairman serving, in an ex-officio capacity.

Ajith Nivard Cabraal - State Minister of Finance, Capital Markets and State Enterprise Reforms was the Chief Guest and Viraj Dayaratne - Chairman of Securities & Exchange Commission  participated as the Guest of Honour at the meeting.

The outgoing Chairman, Rasakanth Rasiah, acknowledged the contributions and initiatives made by the Council during his term of office amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Faizal Salieh paid a glowing tribute to all the past chairmen of SLID for their leadership of the Institute since its inception in 2000. He specifically mentioned that Rasiah and the Council had held the reigns remarkably well under tough operating conditions.

He spoke about the key initiatives launched by the Institute to build leadership caliber at the Board level. On the Board Diversity Agenda, he said, “Our approach is through the larger business case for diversity in functional skills, experience, age, gender, and ethnicity”.

He urged all company Boards to increase the admission of women and to take pride in making disclosures on this in their company annual reports. “We believe that is a much preferable option to legally mandating. We also need to create Male Champions in every company for promoting women on Boards” he said.

Salieh said, “Corporate governance is a strategic imperative and not just a matter for compliance. Governance today is not just about technology. It’s about balance, judgement, ethics and selecting the right people. As business models move away from linear to disruptive models, directors have to sharpen and widen their knowledge and skills to cope with the new challenges. We at SLID will strive to uphold and promote the principles of good governance beyond the realm of corporate boardrooms. 

For good governance to prevail, be effective and sustainable at the corporate sector and company level, it must also be inspired, accepted and established as a value standard and best practice at the macro-country level. This is a challenge that we as a nation should not walk away from, but unitedly come together to accomplish and uphold at all times.”