About Us

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The AVM Board has an excellent mix of senior executive and board experience spanning decades, expertise in multiple disciplines covering varying industry sectors, and track records of success spanning entrepreneurship, banking, finance, e-commerce, technology, fintech and management consulting.

Hiran Cabraal

Chairman

Hiran has a career spanning over three decades of international experience and leadership in the financial services industry. His journey has taken him across six Asian countries, where he has held significant leadership positions within the HSBC Group and PwC Consulting in Vietnam.

Hiran's portfolio includes senior leadership roles in diverse areas covering Global Banking and Markets businesses, Risk Management, Financial Crime Compliance at HSBC, and Risk Consulting at PwC in Vietnam, where he serves as a Subject Matter Expert (SME). As the Founder and Managing Director of HSVC (Vietnam) Company Limited, he brings his entrepreneurial spirit.

Hiran also contributes as an Independent, Non-Executive Director of Sampath Bank PLC, Sri Lanka, demonstrating his commitment to finance. He graduated with a BSC in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of Maryland, USA, which complements his practical expertise.

With his achievements and extensive background, Hiran is well-positioned to steer AVM towards a future defined by innovation, growth, and resounding success.

Suren Kannangara

Managing Director

Suren, co-founded Affno in the year 2000 and has since given leadership to what has evolved into a niche Group that has designed, built, and commercialised a suite of software products. These products and the related services have been deployed across 15 industry sectors in ten countries including several e-government deployments funded by the World Bank. The Group has been the recipient of several prestigious awards including a World Summit Award for Mobile Government.

Suren is a Graduate of the University of Massachusetts and holds a B.Sc. and a M.Sc. in Computer Science. Upon graduation, Suren was recruited to what is popularly considered to be the Mecca of software engineering - AT&T Bell Labs in New Jersey, USA. He worked at Bell Labs on cutting edge projects with the crème de la crème of the software industry for six years prior to founding Affno.

Suren is a futurist who has been consistent in identifying emerging trends and successfully bringing to market new software solutions ahead of their time. He is a talent spotter and mentor with the ability to develop high performing, lean teams.

Vijith Kannangara

Director

He is a medical doctor turned entrepreneur and provides leadership to a multi-cultural enterprise with business in Asia, the Middle East, and now entering Europe. The enterprise comprises three groups of companies. Viz. Smart Media The Annual Report Company which is a leader in annual report preparation in the Eastern Hemisphere; Affno, a software company that has designed, built, and commercialised a suite of software products: and Q&E, a boutique advertising agency providing a 360 brand communications solution.

He also serves on the boards of the National Stroke Association of Sri Lanka, Jetwing Symphony PLC, and and the Children’s Heart Project of Sri Lanka and is a trustee of the National Trust of Sri Lanka.

Vijith was picked by LMD magazine as one of the top ten captains of business, commerce, and industry in Sri Lanka in 2012 and was also conferred an honorary fellowship by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK.

Priyan Attygalle

Director

Priyan Attygalle has three decades’ experience in banking and finance. He was appointed CEO of American Express (Saudi Arabia) in 2006 and served in this capacity until 2022, making him one of the longest serving CEOs of a Saudi Central Bank regulated entity.

Prior to joining American Express, he was with the HSBC Group for over 15 years. When heading the HSBC cards business in the Middle East, he worked closely with Visa and MasterCard as a member of their Regional Advisory Board and served on the Board of Directors of Reward Management Middle East, the issuers of Airmiles, a leading loyalty provider in the Middle East. Before moving to the Middle East, he held various Senior Management positions with HSBC in Sri Lanka.

The American Express (Saudi Arabia) team under his leadership transformed the Company to be the leading provider of payment solutions to large Saudi Corporates and High Net Worth individuals. The Company won the coveted American Express GNS Presidents Award in 2011, the Best Centurion Launch in 2008, the Best Commercial Sales, and the Best Loyalty Program in 2012.

He has an MBA and Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. USA. He is a recreational Golfer and loves to travel.

Sam Dias

Director

Sam is a mathematical economist by training and for over twenty-five years he has been using data driven methods to advise businesses on how to grow. He specialises in evidence-based marketing and consults on matters relating to marketing finance.

Sam started his career as an econometrics analyst at DDB London and worked across several blue-chip clients including Unilever, British Gas, Heinz and Barclaycard. He then joined Brand Finance as Director of Brand Economics. Here he consulted for Microsoft, Barclaycard and NPower, working on brand valuation projects.

Sam’s area of expertise is strategic marketing analysis and evaluation of market effectiveness. Since 2004 Sam has worked with some of the world’s leading marketing communications agencies: Publicis, Omnicom Media Group and Publicis Media. He has written extensively about marketing optimization and has published in both academic and practitioner journals. He has nine award winning IPA Advertising Effectiveness Awards to his name.

Sam has a BSc in Economics and Statistics and a MSc in Economics specialising in Econometrics from the University of Southampton, UK. Sam is currently Head of Marketing Analysis and Modelling for Publicis Media UK.

Subram Ramaswamy

Director

Subram is an independent consultant and advisor to the senior leadership of corporate, public sector, and non-governmental organizations. He has over 25 years of experience in Sri Lanka and the United States across diverse industries. He has also worked closely with international organizations such as the World Bank, ADB, and UN agencies.

In the US, he worked for McKinsey and Company in its New York office providing leadership in a variety of roles including consulting, research, and practice management. He was responsible for originating and subsequently leading McKinsey's first large scale project in Sri Lanka, and, together with their Asian leadership, laying the groundwork for continuing operations in the Country.

Upon his return to Sri Lanka, Subram worked as VP of Strategy for Brandix and Company. More recently, he was appointed Senior Advisor to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Sri Lanka. Subram is also an Independent Group Director of Aberdeen Holdings.

Subram has an MBA from Cranfield, UK and professional qualifications from CIM UK and the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) UK.

Dirk Guinan

Advisory Board Member

Dirk is a senior executive with over 30 years’ experience in a range of disciplines including business strategy development and execution, business transformation and growth, and professional services in Australia and the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. His experience covers several sectors/domains including Banking/FinTech, Management Consulting, and Aviation in both the private and public sectors.

Dirk is currently the Regional Head, Asia Pacific Region of Wolters Kluwer, Finance Risk and Reporting (FRR), and Head of Consulting and Professional Services. Wolters Kluwer FRR is a worldwide provider of comprehensive Finance, Risk and Regulatory Reporting solutions to the banking sector, with over 150 banking clients in the APAC region and 500 globally, including 90 percent of the world’s top banks. He has led high calibre teams to achieve the company’s business objectives, including growing the Region’s revenue by ten-fold while achieving high profitability margins.

Dirk has a BA, MBA and a Graduate Diploma in Administration from the University of Canberra, Australia. He also possesses a Graduate Certificate in Qualitative Futures Analysis from the Canberra Institute of Technology, Australia, and a Graduate Certificate in Aviation Management from the University of New South Wales, Australia.