President Anura Kumara Dissanayake yesterday made several appointments. Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake was appointed Secretary to the President.

Dr. Kumanayake previously served as the Deputy Director of Sri Lanka Customs, focusing on research areas such as Corruption and Integrity in Customs, International Trade, and Development Economics.

Dr. Kumanayake holds a Phd in Development Economics.

The President also appointed retired Senior Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Ravi Seneviratne as the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security and Air Vice Marshal (retd.) Sampath Thuyacontha as the new Secretary of Defence.

Senior DIG (Retd) Ravi Seneviratne accepting his letter of appointment from Presidential Secretary Dr Nandika Kumananyake yesterday

Seneviratne was the head of the CID at the time of the Easter Sunday attacks and led some investigations into the incident.

Seneviratne holds a Master’s Degree in Human Rights from the University of Colombo. He has served as a founding member of the Special Task Force (STF), former Deputy Director of the State Intelligence Service (SIS), First Secretary of the Sri Lanka Embassy in Thailand, and the Head of Interpol Sri Lanka.

Seneviratne is also the leader of the NPP’s Retired Police Collective.

AVM (Retd) Sampath Thuiyakontha accepting his letter of appointment from Presidential Secretary Dr Nandika Kumananyake yesterday

Thuyacontha joined the Sri Lanka Air Force on 17th of May 1988 with the 19th Intake as an Officer Cadet and was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in the General Duties Pilot Branch in the year 1990.

After completion of training in the year 1990 he was deployed for flying duties as an operational pilot in Bell 212/412 helicopters. In 2001, he was posted to No 9 Attack Helicopter Squadron, Sri Lanka Air Force Base Hingurakgoda as the Second in Command and later was appointed as the Commanding Officer in the year 2005.

During his long tenure, he actively participated in all major operations which includes Humantarian War to liberate North and East and he managed to log more than 7000 flying hours as an Operations/VIP and Attack Helicopter Pilot of SLAF. AVM Thuyacontha also served as the Defence Adviser to the High Commission of Sri Lanka in Islamabad, Pakistan, for a period of two years and as the Chief Instructor of the Defence Services Command and Staff Collage in 2014.

For his individual acts of gallantry and bravery in the face of the enemy during the Humanitarian Operations he was decorated with “Weera Wickrama Vibhushanaya” (WWV), “Rana Wickrama Padakkama” (RWP) and “Rana Sura Padakkama” (RSP) on several occasions.