President appoints Jayamin to BOC board

Bank of Ceylon (BOC) announced the appointment of Jayamin Pelpola to its board as a Non-Executive Director, with immediate effect; the appointment was made by President Ranil Wickremesinghe in his capacity as the Finance Minister.

Pelpola has over 15 years of international experience in investment banking, asset management and digital finance.

Pelpola is the only Sri Lankan to have worked in the coveted Goldman Sachs Principal Strategies group, a team recognised for its creative and highest yielding investment strategies on Wall Street. 

In his career, Pelpola has structured and managed international investments worth more than US $ 20 billion. 
As a senior consultant, Pelpola also advised the US banks and regulators on banking sector reforms. Specifically, he advised the board of directors at Bank of America, DBS, Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank, on capital adequacy decisions, recapitalisations and the application of digital innovations in banking.

Building on his finance sector experience, in 2015, Pelpola entered the financial technology space as an investor and entrepreneur. He started his entrepreneurial journey by developing a proprietary market pricing model to value non-traditional assets and selling it to a Wall Street bank. Pelpola leveraged on this success and shifted his focus to the digital finance space and invested in six tech companies based in the USA, Hong Kong and India. While managing the portfolio of investments, Pelpola worked closely with these companies to implement ideas for consumer adoption, technology integration and monetisation of digital products.

Currently he serves as a Director of Onterra Group, a company he co-founded, which provides IT and artificial intelligence services to a global clientele. 

Additionally, he is a Director of Jayaru TP, an entity he co-founded, which provides infrastructure, financing, processing and technology services to Asiansoft commodity markets. As of now, the company is a leading exporter of durable agricultural commodities serving more than 10 international markets. 

In 2020, the President of Sri Lanka appointed Pelpola as a Board Member of the Board of Investment (BOI), a position he held for three years. As a Board Member at the BOI, he oversaw the formation and implementation of national investment and FDI policies. He was also appointed as Chairman of the BOI Audit Committee.
Pelpola received his MBA from Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts). He also obtained his charters from the CFA Institute (USA) and CIMA (UK).

Pelpola became the youngest CIMA Management Accountant in the world at the age of 20. He was also the youngest CIMA prize-winner at the time. He also received his Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing from CIM (UK). Pelpola is a past pupil of Nalanda College and Gateway International School. 

Jayamin Pelpola

• Only Sri Lankan to work in Goldman Sachs Principal Strategies group
• Structured and managed international investments worth over US $ 20bn
• Advised Bank of America, DBS, Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank boards