Brings diversified leadership and expertise to accelerate Celata’s growth and transformation
24 th February 2023: Celata Tech announced four new appointments to its board of directors
today, effective April 2023. The new members are Prof. Alex Show, Dr. Dharmasri
Kumaratunge, Thareendra Kalpage and Jeff Paine.
With the new appointments, Celata has formed a diverse group of leaders with extensive
experience and knowledge from industries such as economics, financial services, information
technology, and private equity to support its new era of growth and transformation. The new
Celata board members join Founder CEO & Chairman Dr. Thiran De Silva and Chief
Administration Officer Asha Perera.
Prof. Alex Show is a Professor (Practice) in the National University of Singapore School of
Computing’s Information Systems and Analytics department. He was Accenture’s Managing
Director, Health & Public Service. Alex became HDB’s Chief Information Officer in 1989 after
working as a Structural Engineer since 1981. Alex became Senior Vice-President of StarHub
Ltd. in 2003. He was CIO, Head, Enterprise Risk Management, and Head, Business Market.
Prof. Alex was active in the IT community. He was the Singapore Computer Society President
from 1997 to 2001 and led IT Management Association from 1995 until 1999. From 2001 to
2012, Prof. Alex spearheaded the Singapore Chapter of the Project Management Institute. He is
also Cloud Security Alliance Singapore Chapter Chairperson.
Dr. Dharmasri Kumaratunge was an Assistant Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka
(CBSL). He has 31 years of Central Banking expertise in Economic Research, Information
Technology, Payments and Settlements. He was the Board Director of LankaClear (Pvt) Ltd and
a Board Member of Lanka Financial Services Bureau Ltd and the National Institute of Business
Management (NIBM). He was also a member of the Expert Committee for Digital Banking
Blockchain-related Industries, the National Transit Card Implementation Project Steering
Committee, and the Expert Committee to Formulate Regulations to Execute a Digitized System
for Spot Fine for Traffic Offenses.
Thareendra Kalpage is the Co-Founder of Digital Zyndicate Co, a company that places large
bets on transformative ideas, technology, and people. Digital Zyndicate assists entrepreneurs in
their early stages.
Thareendra was a member of Epic Lanka Technologies’ senior executive team prior to founding
Digital zyndicate, where he led the development and launch of new platforms that drove the
company to become one of the country’s leading and most innovative software firms, with an
absolute majority market share on eGovernment initiatives in Sri Lanka.
Thareendra previously worked for and held leadership positions at Microsoft Sri Lanka, Sierra
Information Technologies, and Samson Information Technologies. Thareendra was born and
raised in Sri Lanka, and he is also a well-known author of economics, technology, and global
politics articles.
Jeff Paine is a 28-year Visa, Microsoft, Reuters, and the Royal Bank of Canada veteran. In
2014, he founded PS-engage, a government relations consultancy firm. PS-engage advises
leading IT, e-commerce, banking, and payments organizations on positive engagement with
governments and regulatory and policy activities.
He is also the Asia Internet Coalition’s Managing Director, promoting smart digital economy
regulatory reforms. Jeff is the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore’s Small and
Medium Businesses Committee Co-Chair and was the Financial Services Committee Co-Chair
for six years. Jeff sits on the Tax Feedback Panel of the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore
(IRAS).
“We are thrilled to welcome such high-calibre executives to the Celata Board of Directors, which
we view as a testament to Celata’s leadership in delivering enterprise and consumer products and
digital transformation at an unprecedented scale, as well as the opportunities that lie ahead,” said
Celata Chairman & CEO Dr. Thiran De Silva. “As a company that focuses on a unique
market segment, Celata’s business has experienced tremendous momentum, as evidenced by our
financial performance, user engagement statistics, and, perhaps most importantly, the kind of
talent that has joined the firm in the past few months. I look forward to working with this
distinguished board to assist in taking Celata into its next exciting growth phase.”
“As Celata enters a new phase, building a strong board of directors with strategic experience in
various industries will drive more growth, innovation, and scalability,” further stated Dr. Thiran.
“The Location Intelligence technology, product, and content are more relevant than ever, and our
board is comprised of the most intelligent individuals in these fields. I look forward to continuing
to build and innovate for our global clients and partners with this group.”
About Celata
Celata Tech Inc. is a geographically based intelligence platform and solution development
company, registered address at 413A, 1603 Capitol Avenue, 3097, Laramie, Cheyenne,
Wyoming, USA, 82001 and development arm Celata Tech (Pvt) Ltd. in Sri Lanka at #80, Galle
Road, Mount Lavinia.
Celata is a specialist company that focuses on helping enterprises design and operationalize their
business transformation Geographically. Celata specializes in data quality, data integration,
location intelligence, and various data enrichment products. Its cutting-edge location analytics
and data enrichment solutions assist customers in making informed business, location, and
consumer data-driven decisions. Since its inception in October 2018, Celata has excelled in
gaining the trust of its customers and reputation in the GIS market domain as one of the most
innovative and economic Geographical based solutions providers. With Celata’s key platform,
“GeoBizz – Geographical Base Business Intelligence Platform,” in the market, Celata is rapidly
increasing its market share while competing with industry giants.
To learn more, please visit Celata.tech.