Former Goldman Sachs and Nomura executive Jayamin Pelpola, who has been appointed to the Board of the BOI (Board of Investment), wants to increase the nation’s competency and ambition through the avenues of investment, finance and technology. “I would be very happy to contribute to Sri Lanka in a way that increases the nation’s competency and ambition. It is evident that Sri Lanka has space to improve in the areas of investment, finance and technology to accelerate  thenation’s recovery and development,” he told The Morning, when asked about his vision for the development of the country following his appointment. “Sri Lanka as a nation has a lot of  resilience as well as potential for excellence. Taking into account how we continue to handle the prevailing COVID-19 crisis, it’s clear we can punch above our weight and achieve world class results. My main goal is to promote what is made in Sri Lanka and help the BOI increase the number of sustainable industries within the nation. We have to focus on the right industries, right reforms, right investors and punch above our weight wherever we can. In doing so,  we  need to capture most of the value-added for ourselves,” he added. Pelpola was appointed as a board member of the BOI by the President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, with immediate effect. With over 10 years of experience in international investment banking and asset management, he worked for Goldman Sachs and Nomura USA. He is only Sri Lankan to have worked for the Principal Strategies  groupof Goldman Sachs, an award-winning team hailed for its creative and highest yielding investment strategies on Wall Street. During his career, Pelpola has structured and managed international investments worth more than $ 20 billion in various sectors and countries. Pelpola is a past pupil of Nalanda College and Gateway International School. Receiving his MBA from the Harvard Business School, Pelpola is also the only Sri Lankan to graduate from Harvard Business School with primary, secondary, and higher education completed in Sri Lanka. He also obtained his charters from the CFA Institute (USA) and CIMA (UK). Pelpola became the youngest CIMA Management Accountant, in the world, at the age of 20. He also received his Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing from CIM (UK). He ventured into financial technology (fintech), introducing a proprietary asset valuation model which he sold to a US-based bank. He extended his entrepreneurship skills with Moneyworkz Technologies, which is a virtual space that brings together all banking products of several banks for consumers to compare and choose from. Currently, Pelpola is the Founding President of MoneyWorkz Technologies, which was recently recognised as one of the best fintech startups inAsia for its work in applying technology and data science to the financial sector. The BOI Act provides for the appointment of a total of five board members including the Chairman Susantha Rathnayake. The remaining members are Dr. Harsha Cabral PC, Dr. Harsha Subasinghe and Director Dr. Sanjay Kulathunga.