Get to know your new COPE chairman

Newly appointed chairman of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), Parliamentarian Prof. Charitha Herath was a Senior Government Official, Scholar and Activist in a number of fields.

Prof. Charitha Herath has been a Lecturer at the Department of Philosophy and Psychology in University of Peradeniya since 1995. He holds a PhD in Conservation in Environmental Ethics. His academic interests are primarily in the field of contemporary analytical philosophy, and his later research is on Wittgenstein's Philosophy and the Environmental Ethics.

Prior to his PhD, he received a Fulbright Scholarship in the United States and completed his Masters Degree in Social and Political Philosophy from the University of Ohio, USA. Also, he received a Postgraduate Degree in China -Sri Lankan Relations from Sichuan University, China. Prof.Charitha Herath also served as the Head of the Department of Philosophy and Psychology in the University of Peradeniya from 2016 to 2018.

Prior to that, he served as the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Mass Media and Information from July 2012 to January 2015 and as the Chairman of the Central Environmental Authority from May 2010 to 2013. Prior to that, he served as an Adviser to the Ministry of Mass Media and Information from 2005 to 2010.

In addition to his career, Prof. Charitha Herath is a scholar who has made significant contributions to policy making in the field of politics in this country over the years.

Until his entry into active politics, he was a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Peradeniya.