Innovative Entrepreneurship

Saliya is a seasoned entrepreneur, columnist, and public speaker with 30 years of professional experience in the Asia Pacific and Middle Eastern markets.

He co-founded multiple ventures and has held high-ranking positions in major multinational corporations and regional giants before venturing into entrepreneurship. Having led multimillion-dollar P&Ls for large corporations, he bid farewell to a promising corporate career to focus on passion projects. Saliya has advised numerous senior political leaders, gaining a reputation for his willingness to convey candid and sometimes harsh truths to these individuals. He has also extended his services to senior bureaucrats and business leaders in multiple countries. As an early advocate of digital communications, he has developed several data-driven public engagement digital campaigns.

In 2024, Saliya, with his partner Prof. Alex Lin, a vital mover of the Singapore startup ecosystem, designed a strategic program for Sri Lanka, providing technical and investment expertise to startups in the country in partnership with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). With college dropout maverick Fahad Moti Khan, Saliya co-founded T9L QUBE Colombo to support startups and growth companies to harness potential on the global stage, providing technical, investment and network access in identified geographies where T9L and Saliya operate.

Attending six schools due to family circumstances, his educational journey commenced in a Catholic convent. Saliya’s father, a public servant, was among the 40,000 who lost their jobs for protesting for a Rs 15 daily salary increase in July 1980. Many committed suicide, more went into depression, and many more faced severe economic conditions. His father went into severe depression, faced dire financial situations, and never found a job until his death at the age of 51. According to Saliya, the most critical lesson he received was the forced frugality in his childhood, which he carried to his ventures.

An alumnus in public leadership of the Harvard Kennedy School and John F. Kennedy School of Government, he is a fellow of South Asia Leadership Academy and a Fellow of Atlanta-based Society of International Business Fellows. He studied banking, business administration, marketing and digital economy at the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka, the University of Wales, the Chartered Institute of Marketing UK and Mastercard Academy, respectively. He has a versatile and curious approach to learning, always exploring various disciplines.

Saliya left his aspirations of becoming a cricketer aside at 18 to pursue a banking career to support his ailing family. Starting from humble beginnings, he diligently pursued a corporate career. During his long corporate career, he served Mastercard, Allianz SE, Diners Club International, Commercial Bank of Qatar, Emirates NBD, UAE, National Development Bank of Sri Lanka and Hatton National Bank of Sri Lanka. With regional responsibilities in the Middle East, he closely worked with UAE, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Egypt and Bahrain corporate businesses. Simultaneous to his corporate career, he co-founded his first venture at the age of 27 and bootstrapped a few ventures after that with like-minded co-founders. A friend, a Columbia Alum, named him the “rainmaker”, identifying Saliya’s ability to bring people with diverse ideologies, aspirations, and missions together for the common good.

Saliya has played a significant role in educating and mentoring over 20,000 young individuals and professionals across various parts of the world. As a product of Sri Lanka’s free education system, he remains committed to giving back to underprivileged children to help them pursue their dreams. In 2017, Saliya was the inaugural recipient of the “Force for Good” award from Legendary Ajay Banga, the CEO of Mastercard. At Mastercard, the “Force for Good” award recognised the exceptional contribution to society by Mastercard employees. Further, he was the Sri Lanka anchor of Ajay Banga’s 100 million meals global program, feeding underprivileged children in various parts of Sri Lanka with the World Food Program. Also, he designed the Mastercard – Educate Lanka scholarships program to provide financial and technical assistance to underprivileged girls in Sri Lanka. Further, in 2016, he was the keynote speaker of the career guidance program of the National Human Resources Development Council of Sri Lanka and addressed thousands of school children. Also, he was a key steering committee member of the first-ever National Human Capital Summit of Sri Lanka, held in August 2016.

At Allianz SE, Saliya was a key APAC senior executive contributing to the Allianz Global brand initiatives, including leveraging sponsorship assets. Saliya used F1, Paralympic, education, golf, football, and music for communications and reported the Asian perspective to the global brand team. In 2013, Allianz brought financial and technical assistance to the National Paralympic Committee of Sri Lanka to rejuvenate the sport at the request of Saliya. In 2014, he challenged the NPC officials and athletes to dream of bringing home the first Paralympic gold medal to Sri Lanka at the 2016 Summer Paralympic Games in Rio. Winning a gold medal was just a dream in 2014. Though it failed in 2016, Dinesh Priyantha Hearth brought glory to Sri Lanka in 2020; the Summer Paralympic games in Tokyo and Saliya were not part of the system then. However, in 2023, at the request of colleagues at the NPC, Saliya returned to the movement as an honorary advisor to carve out the marketing, sponsorships and funding for the neglected sport in the country. To date, he advises the National Paralympic Committee of Sri Lanka to popularise the sport, which could inspire millions in the community. At Allianz, Saliya spearheaded the “MyFinance Coach” initiative to provide financial literacy to school children. Also, he was a vital member of the Allianz Junior Football initiative in Collaboration with FC Bayern Munchen, which provided hundreds of children from 20 countries an opportunity to learn from the best.

Saliya is a vital member of the Ruhunu Kataragama Maha Devalaya – Cancer Hospital project. With the support of the devotees, Ruhunu Kataragama Maha Devalaya is planning to build a 500-bed government-owned cancer hospital.

In 2022, alongside his wife Jayani and their children Aneethra, Amaya, and Dimitry, Saliya established the Amatry initiative to combat depression, dedicating much of his family’s wealth to this cause. His connection to the issue stems from his parents’ battles with depression, leading him to support individuals struggling with mental health challenges. As an extension to Amatry Initiative, Jayani is converting the Rukgolla estate, the inheritance from her great-great-grandmother, matriarch Helena Wijewardene, into a mind, body and soul retreat centre for needy people.

Born to a politically active family, Saliya was involved in student, youth and adult politics. After losing a loved one in the 1989 rebellion, Saliya was a silent warrior for political and social causes in Sri Lanka and continues to use his pen to shape the public discourse in some form with a nich international readership. Stemming from his childhood experience, a believer in non-violence, he co-designed the “Ahanna” (listen) initiative for the government of Sri Lanka to address the pressing issue of national reconciliation after 26 years of brute civil war.

As a newspaper columnist, Saliya expresses his ideas openly, earning recognition as a free thinker. He adeptly connects politics to his broader range of interests and three decades of exposure to various fields. Having written under different bylines for years, a few colleagues pushed him from self-exile to the public domain. He writes under his name now, and his columns are being published in various media assets on the international stage. A resident fellow of the EconVue, he is a white tick, best-seller author on Substack.

A passionate and unscripted speaker, he regularly delivers impromptu speeches to audiences, fearlessly sharing candid insights about politics, business, and life.

A firm believer in South Asia, Saliya writes and speaks about the power of South Asia in global corridors.

At the age of 32, he experienced a life-altering event when he was temporarily paralysed for five days due to a spinal cord issue. He considers this incident a pivotal moment that led to a heightened consciousness of the mind. Born into a devout Catholic family in 2017, he began delving deeply into Buddhism as a way of life. Additionally, his visit to the Matrimandir in 2023 inspired him to become a dedicated student of Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy.