W. D. Lakshman

On 24 December 2019, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed him as the 15th Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka replacing Indrajit Coomaraswamy who resigned from the position due to personal reasons. Lakshman was appointed as the CBSL governor at the age of 78 despite not having adequate experience with the Central Banking and despite the age limit of 70. On September 10, 2021 he announced at a media conference that he was stepping down with effect from September 14, six weeks before his intended retirement date. He said his ideology was shared by a minority. He also faced severe criticism during his tenure as CBSL governor as Central Bank of Sri Lanka printed too much money more than required which eventually led to soar in general price levels. He also reportedly received a job offer to join the International Monetary Fund but he turned down the offer.

Deshamanya Weligamage Don Lakshman (commonly known as W. D. Lakshman) popularly known as Professor W. D. Lakshman is a Sri Lankan economist, professor, lecturer, academic and author who also served as the 15th Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and current chairman of the Monetary Board of the CBSL. He is regarded as one of the prominent economists of the country mainly well known for his immense contributions to policy related activities and for being specialised in the field of Economics.

After his retirement, Lakshman was appointed as an advisor to the Ministry of Finance in 2008 and as the chairman of the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) in 2010. In 2009, he was appointed the chairman of the Presidential Commission on Taxation in Sri Lanka. In 2018, he was also appointed as the chairman of the Presidential committee by the then president Maithripala Sirisena to probe and report on the controversial Singapore-Sri Lanka Trade Agreement.

He was the Vice Chancellor of University of Colombo from 1994 to 1999 and he resigned from the position in 1999 in order to take up a visiting professor assignment in a Japanese university. In recognition of his contribution to the field of education, the Sri Lankan government honoured him with Deshamanya title in 2005. Having rendered a yeoman service to the university system in Sri Lanka over a period of 43 years, he retired on 27 October 2007. The University of Colombo, in recognition of his services to higher education honoured him with the degree in Doctor of Letters in 2008 during an annual convocation. He was also granted the honorary title of Emeritus Professor in 2007 from the University of Colombo.

He also completed his doctorate at the University of Oxford on a university scholarship in 1968 and obtained Doctor of Philosophy in 1973. While serving as a senior lecturer in Economics at the University of Peradeniya, he was appointed as the Professor of Economics at the University of Colombo in 1982 and was also subsequently appointed as the Head of the Department in University of Colombo. He was also subsequently promoted as a senior professor in 1992.

After completing his secondary education, he joined the University of Ceylon in 1960 based on his performance at the University Preliminary Examination. He completed his bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Ceylon, where he was an undergraduate from 1960 to 1964. He pursued his career as an assistant lecturer in 1964 with the University of Ceylon and served until 1968. He also started writing books in Sinhala language while he was serving as assistant lecturer in 1965 in order to solve difficulties faced by students studying in Sinhala medium due to lack of books. He also served as an assistant lecturer at the Vidyodaya University in 1972.

Lakshman was born in 1941 as the third of four children of the business family of Mr. and Mrs. Porolis de Silva in a small village in Mihiripanne, Galle District and hails from a humble family background. His father was a small scale businessman. He pursued his primary and secondary education at Vidyaloka College, Galle, and was the Head Prefect at school.