Mr. Saliya Wickramasuriya spent 27 years in several countries around the world working for Schlumberger (now called SLB), first gathering and interpreting wireline geological, geophysical and petrophysical data on oil rigs, then in charge of operations in the Gulf of Suez, Eastern Desert and Sinai, then developing new products for global launch based in Houston and Paris, and ending up as marketing manager for Southern Africa based in Luanda, Angola, following which he returned to Sri Lanka and held several positions in both the Government and private sector.

These included, being appointed under different Governments, as Chairman of the Board of Investment, Chairman of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, Chairman of the Petroleum Development Authority, Commission Member and Director General of the Port City Economic Commission, and Chairman of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Ltd and Trincomalee Petroleum Terminal Ltd. Saliya also spent 24 months as part of a Cabinet-appointed team of specialists advising the Minister of Power and Energy on the power sector reforms that delivered the Electricity Act of 2024.

On the private sector side, Saliya has been Co-Chair of the Energy Committee of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce since 2017 and is a member of the board of several companies.