Suren Rajakarier Named Managing Partner of KPMG Sri Lanka and Maldives

For staff tracking who controls partner decisions and practice investment at KPMG Sri Lanka and Maldives, the answer changed on April 1. Suren Rajakarier, who spent nearly two decades leading the firm's audit practice before becoming its Chief Operating Officer, stepped into the Managing Partner role effective April 1, 2026, succeeding Priyanka Jayathilake, who had held the position since April 2023.

The internal elevation matters for a specific reason: Rajakarier is not arriving from outside with an agenda to decode. He is the person who built the audit practice that underpins the firm's reputation with more than 1,500 clients, including more than half the companies listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange. His priorities are already visible in his career record.

He was appointed to the partner level at 29, one of the youngest in the firm's history. Over 39 years in audit and assurance, he worked as engagement partner on assignments spanning multinational corporations and major Sri Lankan institutions, built out the financial services practice, served as KPMG's Middle East and South Asia regional head for financial services overseeing 15 countries, and holds accreditation as an IFRS partner in Sri Lanka. Before stepping into the COO role, he also served as the firm's Head of Learning and Development, a detail relevant to any associate or manager watching how the new managing partner defines professional development expectations.

His stated philosophy sets an early benchmark for what the firm will reward. "My trust role is about setting the right tone at the firm to meet our ethical standards, and ensuring integrity is at the core of whatever we do," Rajakarier said in prior remarks that have consistently defined his public leadership posture. That framing signals quality and compliance rigor are unlikely to be traded for growth volume under his watch.

Alongside the managing partner transition, Ranjani Joseph, previously the firm's Head of Markets and an audit partner, assumed the COO role, completing a reshuffle that places two career-long audit professionals simultaneously at the top of the firm. For practitioners in assurance, that leadership configuration tends to reinforce investment in audit quality rather than a pivot toward advisory expansion, at least in the near term.

For those on partner track, Rajakarier's background in IFRS advisory, infrastructure due diligence, and the MESA regional practice is a clear signal about the engagements the firm will continue to prioritize. His 15-country MESA role also suggests cross-border work, including in the Maldives practice, will remain a live opportunity for high-performing managers building a broader client portfolio.

Rajakarier also serves as Chairman of the Statutory Auditing Standards Committee under Sri Lanka's Accounting and Auditing Standards Act No. 15 of 1995, placing the firm's new managing partner at the center of the country's regulatory standard-setting. That dual role, private sector firm leader and public regulatory body chairman, gives KPMG Sri Lanka unusual visibility into where audit requirements are heading before they become mandatory, and makes Rajakarier's interpretation of quality standards the one that will shape both the firm's internal grading and the country's external benchmarks.