The South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA), which represents over 400,000 accounting professionals, has appointed Vice President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) Mr. Heshana Kuruppu as its Vice President with effect from 01st January 2023.
Mr. Nihar N. Jambusaria, Past President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), took over the reins as the President of SAFA, which is the apex accounting body of the South Asian region. Both Mr. Jambusaria and Mr. Kuruppu will serve as President and Vice President for a period of one year.
SAFA, which is a network partner of the global accounting body, International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), consists of 11 accounting bodies from South Asian, and represents India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Maldives, and Afghanistan.
Mr. Jambusaria is a fellow Chartered Accountant from Mumbai who qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1984. He serves as a member of the Professional Accountants in Business (PAIB) Advisory Group of IFAC. He has also represented ICAI on Council and was a member of several important committees constituted by the Indian government and regulators relating to policy formation, which include the Government Accounting Standards Advisory Board (GASAB) and Audit Advisory Board.
Mr. Kuruppu who commands over 23 years of experience, is a fellow member of CA Sri Lanka and currently serves on the Council of CA Sri Lanka in his capacity as the Institute’s Vice President. At CA Sri Lanka, he has chaired many committees including the Finance and Administration Committee, Member Relation Committee, Annual Report Awards Committee, National Conference Committee, and the Board of Management of the School of Accounting and Business. He is also an incumbent member of Council of the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) of Sri Lanka.
In addition to serving the profession locally, Mr. Kuruppu has also served the profession at a regional level. He was the Chairman of the Committee for Improvement in Transparency, Accountability, and Governance of SAFA, and served as a member of the Professional Accountant in Business Committee and the Committee to Study Fiscal Regimes and Other Statutory Requirements of Business in SAARC countries.
Having kicked off his professional career at KPMG, Mr. Kuruppu has held several distinguished positions including Group Chief Financial Officer/Director at First Capital Group and General Manager at MAS Holdings. At present, he serves as the Group Chief Financial Officer/Board Member of SBUs at the David Pieris Group of Companies, a leading diversified group in the country.