Deshal De Mel

Deshal de Mel is an economist who has experience across government, private sector, and academia. He served as Economic Advisor to the Ministry of Finance of Sri Lanka from 2017 till 2019, working on tax reforms and other public finance matters. He was also a member of the National Trade Negotiation Committee where he led negotiations on trade in services, completing Sri Lanka’s first bilateral trade in services agreement with Singapore. He previously worked in the corporate sector as Senior Economist at the Hayleys Group, one of Sri Lanka’s largest diversified conglomerates. He has served on a number of corporate and non-corporate boards, including at present Sampath Bank PLC, and previously Sri Lankan Airlines, Sri Lankan Catering, and the Centre for Poverty Analysis. He was also a Commissioner at the Securities & Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka in 2018-2019. He has a degree in Philosophy, Political Science, and Economics from the University of Oxford and a Masters in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics. He was recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2019.