Mrs. Priyanthi Pieris received her professional education at Sri Lanka Law College and was admitted as an Attorney-at-Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka in 1976. She passed the qualifying examination as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales in 1978. She is presently serving as the Chairperson/ Consultant of PWCorporate Secretarial (Pvt.) Ltd., Member of the Board of Directors of Associated Electrical Corporation Ltd., LOLC Finance PLC and JAT Holdings (Private) Ltd. She commands extensive legal knowledge and experience in both the Public Sector and the Private Sector, with unparalleled expertise on Capital Market Operations, mergers, acquisitions and corporate restructuring.

Her involvement in the public sector include having served as a Legal Consultant to the Colombo Stock Exchange (2004 –2011) when she gave leadership to draft Rules and Regulations of the Colombo Stock Exchange, covering inter alia proposed demutualisation, at its introductory stage and giving related interpretations. She also served as the Legal Consultant to the Ministry of Finance from 2002 to 2004, during which period, she directly advised the Minister of Finance. She worked alongside her counterparts at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, when Rules were formulated for the Scriptless Debt Securities Trading and Settlement System, during which time she was also responsible to recommend amendments to relevant legislation in the implementation of Scriptless Securities.

In the Private Sector, she was Senior Vice President (Legal) of Vanik Incorporation Ltd. (1998 to 2000), before which she was a Senior Executive at Forbes & Walker Limited/ per pro, a pioneer tea and stock broking firm in Sri Lanka, from 1981.

Mrs. Pieris has served as a Member of the Board of Directors of several leading companies in Sri Lanka, including Forbes & Walker Ltd., Forbes Ceylon Ltd. and Forbes Stock Brokers Ltd. (presently known as DFCC Stock Brokers (Private) Ltd., Associated Motorways PLC, Abans Electricals PLC, Asia Asset Finance PLC, to name a few.

She has made substantial contributions on capital market development policy initiatives having served as a Member of the Committee on Take-Overs & Mergers Code set up by the Securities & Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka, as a Member of the Corporate Governance Committee set up by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka to amend its Rules and as a member of the Law Commission of Sri Lanka.

Mrs. Pieris has unparalleled knowledge and hands on experience in managing public share issues, company listings including public offerings, rights and bonus issues, take-overs and mergers, structuring of companies including companies seeking Board of Investment status, amalgamation of companies, re-purchase of shares, splitting of shares, issue of convertible warrant & listing thereof, de-Listing of Public Quoted Companies etc.

She is very familiar of the Rules of the Colombo Stock Exchange on debt instruments and continuing listing requirements, as well as Rules and Regulations of the Securities & Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka.

Mrs. Pieris also commands vast experience in advising, negotiating and drafting legal documents related to corporate finance, joint ventures, share option schemes, employee share ownership schemes, securitisation, trade papers, factoring and notarial documents including Deeds of Transfer, Mortgage Bonds, Deeds of Assignment, loan syndication documents, Trust Deeds etc.