BRIEF CV OF SRI LANKA'S INSURANCE OMBUDSMAN:

Dr. Weerasooria was educated at Royal College Colombo, where he excelled in Classics winning the coverted Harvard Memorial Prize and the Governor General's Prize. He graduated with a LLB (Honours) Law Degree from Ceylon University obtaining First Class Honours. Thereafter he passed out as a Barrister and Solicitor in Sri Lanka (now called Attorney-At-Law) also with First Class Honours and was placed first in order of merit.

He practised Law in Sri Lanka on the Civil side and also lectured at all the leading Tertiary Institutions in the island - The University of Ceylon (Peradeniya); The Sri Lanka Law College; The Vidyodaya University (now Sri Jayawardanapura University); The Institute of Chartered Accountants and The Institute of Bankers. He was also an examiner at these Institutions.

In 1972 after obtaining his PhD from the London School of Economics, Dr. Weerasooria functioned as a senior academic at Australia's prestigious Monash University from 1972-1977. In 1977 he returned to Sri Lanka and served as Secretary of The Ministry of Plan Implementation which Ministry was under the Executive President.

In 1986, Dr. Weerasooria was made Ambassador/High Commissioner to Australia and New Zealand and several Pacific Countries such as Fiji, Vanavatu, Papua New Guinea, which post he held until 1990.

From 1990 onwards, Dr. Werasooria reverted to Monash University as an Associate Professor of Law and was also Director of the Banking Law Centre set up by Australia's leading Bank - The National Australia Bank.

In 2002, Dr. Weerasooria returned to Sri Lanka and was appointed a Consultant to the Ministry of Tertiary Education and Trainning and was also a member of the Goverenment's Administrative Reforms Commitee. During this period he also served as a Legal Consultant in Financial Sector Law Reforms at the Central Bank (Reserve Bank) of Sri Lanka.

As an academic, Dr. Weerasooria has published over fourteen texts most of them on Banking, Credit and Commercial Law which are prescribed texts in Australia and Sri Lanka. His most recent text is The Law Governing Public Administration in Sri Lanka, the only text on the subject upto date.

Dr. Weerasooria also continues to lecture at post graduate courses at the Sri Lanka Law College, the Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Post Graduate Institute of Management (PIM). For the past over 20 years, Dr. Weerasooria has also been actively engaged in assisting the Blind and Visually Handicapped of Sri Lanka as an Advisor to the Sri Lanka Federation for visually Handicapped.