Kimarli Fernando, currently the only female CEO of a bank in Sri Lanka, recently won the Professional Woman of the Year award at the Women’s Chamber of Commerce. She is the CEO of Pan Asia Bank, with 30 branches and 500 staff.

Ms Fernando was a well-known sportswoman and captained Sri Lanka in swimming and represented the country at the Asian Games. She has a LLB from the London School of Economics and is a barrister at law and attorney at law. She is the author of the book “Company Law of Sri Lanka”.

Her career in banking started in 1989 at Deutsche Bank. She was also Head of Corporate Banking at Standard Chartered Bank.