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Our Team

Amal Sanderatne, CFA
Founder & CEO

Amal is an alumni of the London School of Economics, and is a CFA® charterholder. He previously worked at Jardine Fleming HNB Securities Sri Lanka as Head of Research. Following the takeover of Jardine Fleming by JP Morgan Chase he was transferred to Singapore where he led JP Morgan’s Asia Pacific ADR research and also managed the research of Hong Kong based Access Products Group.


Amal founded Frontier Research in 2001 with a vision of creating a firm that does great work whilst offering a choice driven culture to its employees.

Nimesha Jayakody
Chief Research Officer

With a 5-year tenure at Frontier Research, Nimesha currently provides overall strategic direction to the Macro-Economic Research and Sector Research divisions, leading a team over 10 individuals. She is responsible for ensuring that the research insights effectively cater to the information needs of the business clientele and are delivered in a timely manner. As a senior member of the company, she oversees work on new product development, team growth and drives the firm's strategic goals.


She also leads the research on thematic Equity reports, which is a core part of our ‘Equity Strategy Perspectives’ report series, giving perspectives on the local equity market.


Before joining Frontier, she was an analyst directly reporting to the CEO of MAS - Linear Intimo, and was involved in several projects, in the capacity of a research analyst. 


She has made several TV appearances and has been featured in other media, while joining panel discussions as both a moderator and panelist recently. 

Thanuri Thalagala
Chief Operating Officer

Thanuri leads the business development, operations and Tech function at Frontier. She is responsible for overseeing client-relationships with existing clients as well as new prospects which involves in identifying suitable client groups for new products and services while driving client adoption for them. She also plays a key role in financial planning and budgeting for Frontier as well as overseeing the Tech team at Frontier.

Thanuri  is part of the leadership team involved in strategic decision making at Frontier, while being responsible for the growth and development of team members under the areas of business development, operations and Tech functions at Frontier.

Thilina Panduwawala
Head of Economic Research

Thilina Panduwawala is Head of Economic Research at Frontier Research. He returned to Frontier in 2022 after an 18-month stint at the ADB as a consultant to its Sri Lanka Resident Mission. Prior to this in his previous four years at Frontier, Thilina led work in embedding politics into Frontier’s economic analysis and was able to provide fresh perspectives on the interactions between them, which have become an integral part of Frontier’s approach.

Thilina also currently functions as the alternate member to Frontier’s CEO on the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Steering Committee on Economic Policy.

Niroshi Perera
Head of Applied Research

Niroshi re-joined Frontier upon her return from the UK as a Chevening Scholar pursuing a MSc in Poverty, Inequality and Development at the University of Birmingham. She is responsible for Frontier’s economics knowledge arm engaging in economics communication useful for the general public. She also heads team member development and Human Resource Strategy at Frontier.

She has experience in strategy formulation and execution and has previously worked in multi-cultural teams in diverse countries as an Asia Pacific Graduate Trainee at Heineken Asia Pacific prior to joining Frontier.

Niroshi is a heavy tea drinker and is likely to be found staring at sunsets with a cuppa.

Chayu Damsinghe
Product Head - Macroeconomic and Thematic Research

Chayu is currently a Product Head at Frontier Research and works primarily with the Economics team. He plays a leading role in helping Frontier understand debt crises across the world and tying those into the Sri Lankan situation. He also heads work around understanding Covid-19 pandemic and other black swan risks, and tying those into the macroeconomic stories of the country and takes a key role in in the development of Frontier's views on interest rates and the LKR and in the presentation of content to Frontier's clients. Additionally, he handles work surrounding consumer demand and sales patterns in Sri Lanka along with the impact of global markets on the Sri Lankan economy.

He has been featured on LMD's 'Benchmark' business programme, Channel Eye's 'Business Today' programme, TV1's, "Bisnomics" programme, and Echelon magazine.

Chayu also acts as an Executive Director for DaddysLanka (Pvt) Ltd, a family-run institute working in the field of special needs and mental health care.

Nashalie De Silva
Senior Product Lead

Nashalie currently functions as a Product Lead and works within the Economic Research team at Frontier. She plays a key support role in Economic research for Frontier's reports and in presenting content to Frontier's client base. She also contributes to the macro-economic modelling and forecasting function at Frontier.


Nashalie has been featured on Channel Eye's 'Business Today’ where she discussed Sri Lanka’s Economic Crisis and necessary reforms, and also moderated PWC Academy’s ‘Quarter 02, Economic Outlook 2022 Series’. Prior to joining Frontier, she contributed to Economic Research at the EU Delegation to Sri Lanka and Maldives.

Anjali Hewapathage
Product Lead

Anjali is a final year undergraduate at the University of Colombo, majoring in Economics with a focus on Trade and Industry. She volunteers at the Rotaract Club of Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo.

On a typical day after work you would find her watching reruns of Brooklyn-Nine-Nine or her favourite k-dramas to unwind. Anjali is passionate about gender economics and she is also currently studying the impacts of digitalisation on females in Sri Lanka.

Aparni Seneviratne
Lead - Business Development and Operations

Aparni is a graduate of KDU holding a BSc in Built Enviornment (Architecture), currently pursuing her MSc in Sustainable Tourism at University of Peradeniya. 


Being a "nomad" all her life, she loves to intertwine her experiences and knowledge on diverse subjects to form synergetic content, at work and her daily life. She volunteers for several animal rescue organizations, passionate about creating awareness on equality and enjoys doodling random comic strips for her friends during her free time.

Malik Nazahim
Associate

Malik is a third-year Business Economics student at Sri Jayewardenepura University and he's worked at European Horizons as a Public Relations Officer as the only student led policy incubator. After work, his typical day would end with him reading a book, preferably non-fiction!

He is passionate about global issues such as poverty eradication and income inequality reduction. Malik also believes that one day he will be able to make a significant positive impact on the world.

Arshad Ismail
Associate

Arshad is a final year Business Economics Undergraduate at the University of Colombo, and a passionate Rotaractor with many accolades behind his name. Anything to do with Economics excites him and keeps him going.

On a usual morning, you’d see him running around getting his work done and glued to his laptop by the end of the day as he tutors Economics online to 200 Advanced Level students from across the island. If any free time comes his way, which is quite rare, you’d see him enjoying a blissful nap.

Navinda Meepe
Trainee Associate

Navinda is a third-year student in the business economics department at the University of Colombo. He used to work for Buost Asia as an accounts manager from April 2021 until August 2022. From 2018-2019, he interned at Hatton National Bank.

Currently, he's the vice president of the Rotaract club of University of Colombo faculty of Management and Finance and the vice president of the business economics student association at the University of Colombo. Futsal is his favorite way to unwind after a long day. He has a strong interest in assisting disadvantaged communities and a passion to work for the elimination of racial and all other types of discrimination and the promotion of living in peace and harmony with one another.

Akna Tennakoon
Associate

Akna is a fourth-year student at the University of Colombo, majoring in Economics with a focus on Banking and Finance, minoring in Literature and Linguistics. Before joining Frontier, she worked at ICRA Lanka Limited, first as a research intern and then as an Associate Analyst.


On a typical day after work you would find her reading or journaling. She loves outdoorsy activities and enjoys hiking, camping and cycling.

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