Born in Sri Lanka during the onset of one of the most brutal civil wars, I was fortunate to be adopted by a French family. My father spent part of his career at the International Federation of Metalworkers, where he was traveling on international missions. Consequently, I benefited from his knowledge.
A few years after my adoption, he decided to join an international organisation affiliated with the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. I thus had the privilege to study in private schools in Geneva. Afterwards, I chose to pursue law studies at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, while continuing my professional activities.
Throughout my career, I traveled around the world and gained expertise across various business areas.
For instance, I negotiated and suggested joint ventures to implement traceability solutions for raw materials and financial flows, aiming to combat the financing of armed groups in Africa.
I was also involved in sourcing aluminum suppliers for Volkswagen AG’s management and worked in the petrochemical industry, facilitating discussions with PEMEX/ PMI.
MY SKILLS
- Risk analysis of exposure in co-financing war crimes and crimes against humanity within business contexts
- Planning, negotiating and signing off of deals and agreements
- Risk management in supply chains and raw material traceability
- Financial crime risk analysis in mergers, acquisitions and investment scenarios
- Design, implementation and management of international projects within strategic areas
- Development of innovative processes and design of traceability systems for money and raw materials supply chain control
- Crisis management strategies for corporate failures and reputation risk analysis
- Developing strategies for tracking financial crime and illicit activities
- Legal strategy creation for litigations involving financial crime, war crimes and crimes against humanity in business
During my 20-years career at Brown & Co, I started as a junior engineer and left the company as Business Development Director, leading a team of over 1,300 people.
At the age of 40, I founded Serendib Engineering & Agencies Pvt Ltd, an engineering and trading company, which became one of the top two listed infrastructure development groups in Sri Lanka.
My company held the national representation in military technology for Tales, in transport for Alstom, in telecommunications for Korean Telecom and Telecom New Zealand.
In my personal capacity, I also represented international brands in Sri Lanka such as Rolls Royce Marine, Aqua Master Rauma, Kamewa, MAN and Brush Traction.
Afterwards, I acquired major control of Colombo Commercial Company (Engineers) Ltd., founded in 1874, which I then completely restructured to achieve profitability within two years.
• Planning and strategy
• Management of large-scale industrial projects
• Management of companies listed on the financial markets
• Management of companies before and after their IPO
• Planning and control of administrative and financial processes
• Control of corporate governance and management
• Design and implementation and cash management systems
• Design and implementation of antimoney laundering procedures and controls
• Forensic accounting and economic and financial auditing in the context of bankruptcies, embezzlement, or crisis situations
• Design of reporting systems
• Organisation and systematisation of data
• Business process modelling for decision support
My first ten years of experience in Switzerland were acquired in multinational companies. First, delegated by PWC, as treasurer for the oil company Tamoil SA, and later to the financial department of Sicpa SA, the world leader in security inks.
I then held positions as administrative and financial director in companies of multinational group Expanscience SA and BioChem Pharma Inc. At the latter, I was also in charge of the implementation and worldwide management of transfer pricing for the ImmunoSytems division.
In 1999, an opportunity arose to start my first consulting business. Since then, I have held positions such as administrator, director or compliance officer in several dozen companies or organisations.
From 2008 to 2013, I also was a financial intermediary authorised by FINMA.