Indrajit Coomaraswamy

Coomaraswamy was born on 3 April 1950 in Colombo, Ceylon.[3][4] He was the son of civil servant Rajendra Coomaraswamy (Roving Raju) and Wijeyamani.[5][6][7] His paternal grandfather C. Coomaraswamy was a civil servant and his maternal grandfather S. K. Wijeyaratnam was chairman of Negombo Urban Council.[5][7][8] He has one sister, Radhika.[5][6] Coomaraswamy was educated at Royal College, Colombo and at Harrow School.[7][9][10] He was captain of Royal's primary cricket team.[8] He was captain of Harrow's cricket team from 1967 to 1968 and also played rugby for the school for three years.[4][11] After school he joined Emmanuel College, Cambridge from where he received BA (Hons) and MA degrees.[7][9][12] He played first-class cricket for Cambridge University Cricket Club between 1971 and 1972.[3][13] He then proceeded to the University of Sussex from where he obtained a DPhil degree.[7][9][12]

Coomaraswamy is married to Tara de Fonseka.[13] They have two sons – Imran and Arjun.[13] Coomaraswamy is a Sri Lankan Tamil.

Coomaraswamy joined the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in 1973, working as a staff officer in its Economic Research, Statistics and Bank Supervision divisions until 1989.[7][9][13][14] He was seconded to the Ministry of Finance and Planning between 1981 and 1989 to provide advice on macroeconomic issues and structural reforms.[7][9][13][14][15] He worked at the Commonwealth Secretariat from 1990 to 2008, holding various posts including Chief Officer, Economics in the International Finance and Markets Section; Director of the Economic Affairs Division; and Deputy-Director of the Secretary-General's Office.[7][9][13][14] He was an advisor to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Project Minister of Economic Reforms, Science and Technology Milinda Moragoda between 2001 and 2002.[15]

Coomaraswamy rejoined the Commonwealth Secretariat in 2010 as Interim Director of its Social Transformation Programme Division.[7][9][13][14] He was special advisor to the controversial Galleon Group hedge fund.[14] He was director of a British company called Galleon Research Services Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Galleon International Management LLC.[16][17] He was appointed as a non-executive director of John Keells Holdings PLC in February 2011.[13][18] He was appointed as a director of Tokyo Cement Group in March 2011.[13][15][19] He worked briefly for Hatton National Bank and was a director of SEEDS (Guarantee) Limited.[12][15][20] He was a member of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura's Board of Study (Public Administration) and a director of Nawaloka College of Higher Studies.[21][22] He was later a senior advisor to Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrama.[23][24]

Coomaraswamy was appointed Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in July 2016, replacing Arjuna Mahendran whose tenure was mired by allegations of corruption.[10][25][26]

Coomaraswamy played rugby for Ceylonese Rugby & Football Club and captained the national team in the 1974 Rugby Asiad.[8][11][13] He also played cricket for the Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club.[8][11][13]