Helani Galpaya is LIRNEasia’s Chief Executive Officer, a role she assumed in January 2013.  Until December 2012 she was Chief Operating Officer of LIRNEasia.

Helani leads multiple research projects at LIRNEasia spanning sectors such as telecom, electricity, agriculture and government service delivery. She is involved in the design, conduct and dissemination of LIRNEasia research, all of which aims to improve livelihoods of those at the bottom of the pyramid.  She has consulted for the World Bank, UNCTAD and other international organisations.  She has assessed how the poor in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka use telecenters to access government services, authored reports on how government procurement practices can be used to promote a country’s ICT sector and for the World Broadband Toolkit, a report on broadband strategies in Sri Lanka . She has been an invited speaker at various international forums on topics ranging from m-Government to ICT indicators to communicating research to policy makers.

Prior to LIRNEasia, Helani worked at the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka, which is implementing the World-Bank funded e-Sri Lanka initiative.  Prior to her return to Sri Lanka, she worked in the US at Booz & Co., Marengo Research, Citibank, and Merrill Lynch.

Helani holds a Masters in Technology and Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Bachelor’s in Computer Science from Mount Holyoke College, USA.