Ravi de Silva included in Marquis Who’s Who

Source:Sundayobserver

Sri Lankan Ravi de Silva has been included in Marquis Who’s Who in America’. As in all Marquis Who’s Who biographical volumes, people profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.

A certified Chartered Accountant and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) specialist, de Silva was an outstanding student at Royal College where he had his primary and secondary education.

He was also an outstanding sportsman, having represented Royal College and Sri Lanka in swimming. He captained the school team in 2001 winning multiple national swimming championships. He was also a College waterpolo coloursman and Sri Lanka waterpolo pool member for the South Asian Games.

Hailing from a sporting family, his sister, Nadira de Silva captained Bishop’s College at tennis and chess and excelled at a national level. His father Commodore G. E. S. de Silva (rtd), a former Finance Director of Van Rees Ceylon Ltd and a former Commanding Officer of the Sri Lanka Volunteer Naval Force, was himself a renowned sportsman at Royal College captaining the boxing team and being a Stubbs Shield winner.

de Silva believes that to stop the brain drain in Sri Lanka, the government needs to take measures to have discipline and stop disruptions at the local universities. Ravi and his sister had to abandon their local university education shortly after joining due to poor governance at the university and left the country like many others, to seek foreign university education using the foreign exchange of the country.

He initially pursued a formal education at the University of Sydney, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce in accounting and business information systems. Thereafter, he obtained a diploma in computer studies from Cambridge University and executive education and organizational leadership from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Well qualified in his field, Ravi is certified as a chartered accountant, internal auditor, anti-money laundering specialist and in risk management.

Ravi said that the application of Anti Money Laundering (AML)/ Financial Crimes where he is involved at a global level, could be of immense value to Sri Lanka. Using his expertise, he has expressed his interest to help the country to become stronger and better in its regulatory reforms and come out of the present crisis.

Since 2019, Ravi has found success as the global head of compliance testing for financial crimes and analytics at Citigroup. In this role, he manages a global team from Europe, South America, Asia, and the United States, maintaining relationships with regulators all over the world. Moreover, Ravi ensures that Citigroup manages compliance risk for financial crimes adequately and helps build technology for compliance testing across the enterprise, for financial crimes and for the consumer and banking business.

To remain aware of advancements and changes in the financial industry, Ravi de Silva serves as a member of the Chartered Accountants of Australia and New Zealand, the Institute of Internal Auditors and the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists. Likewise, he has acted as a board member for the Institute of Internal Auditors of Sydney. To help raise funds to support underprivileged schools, Ravi participates in an alumni group based in Sri Lanka. Looking towards the future, his aspiration is to combine innovative technology with compliance regulatory risk management.