Frontier Research has appointed economist Thilina Panduwawala as executive director with effect from 1 January 2027, putting him in charge of the macroeconomic research firm’s strategy and research agenda.
His mandate, the firm said, is to deepen the conviction of its macroeconomic research on Sri Lanka, strengthen relationships with institutional investors, boards, treasury teams and trading desks, and develop the firm’s next generation of research talent.
A third stint
The appointment is Panduwawala’s third spell at Frontier. He was recruited and trained by the firm’s late founder, Amal Sanderatne, and first joined in 2016, when he embedded political analysis into the firm’s forecasting.
After 18 months at the Asian Development Bank’s Sri Lanka Resident Mission, he returned in 2022 at the height of the economic crisis and led the firm as head of research through the sovereign default and debt restructuring — steering its calls on the exchange rate, interest rates and inflation through the rupee’s collapse, record inflation and policy tightening, and then through the domestic debt optimisation and the restructuring of Sri Lanka’s external debt.
Since October 2025 he has served as senior consultant to Parliament’s Committee on Public Finance, supporting its oversight of fiscal and monetary policy across Budget 2026, the Budget 2027 process now under way, and the fiscal packages that followed Cyclone Ditwah and the Middle East conflict.
“Thilina has seen Sri Lanka’s economy from every vantage point that matters: a multilateral lender at the ADB, investors and treasury teams at Frontier Research, and now the State’s finances from within Parliament,” Frontier Research director Chanakya Dissanayake said. “That breadth, together with the rigour Amal instilled in him, makes him the right person to lead Frontier Research into what will be its strongest chapter yet.”
The firm
Founded in 2003, Frontier Research provides independent macroeconomic research to institutional investors, boards, treasury teams and trading desks, and serves as a macro research provider to most of Sri Lanka’s asset managers and banks. Sanderatne built its Macroeconomic Research Service on the premise that getting the macro call right is essential to investment returns in Sri Lanka.
The appointment takes effect a day after the 2027 financial year opens, and the 2027 Budget is due to be presented to Parliament on 12 November.
Note on sourcing
Both filings reproduce the firm’s own announcement, including the quoted passages, rather than independent reporting. Neither states whether Panduwawala will continue in his Committee on Public Finance role after taking up the position, or who succeeds him as head of research.
