- Aussie-based investment banker Sanjana Fernando on Sri Lanka’s predicament
By Jennifer Anandanayagam
The power of the mind is a topic that’s interested psychologists, scientists, behaviourists, and religious scholars for years. Melbourne-based investment banker Sanjana Fernando, too, has a fascination with studying the human mind. “The human mind can be a beautiful instrument. It can also be one of the most despicable instruments,” he shares.
At its best, Fernando explains, we have kindness, compassion, love, music, and capability to solve a maths problem, come up with a plan to feed the starving, or even reach high levels of meditative concentration. “At its lowest levels, the mind can be a weapon that causes death, creates turmoil, wipes out future generations with an invention such as a nuclear weapon, or harms our closest loved ones with minute acts of hate.”
Fernando spent 15 years in London, after moving there from Sri Lanka to pursue his tertiary education. He moved to Melbourne with his young family about eight years ago. Today, he works as a strategic and corporate advisor for conglomerates and listed companies in Sri Lanka. He helps companies based in Sri Lanka to source dollar investments from international investors around the world.
Growing up in Sri Lanka, Fernando enjoyed problem solving, so his interest in education was directed towards subjects like applied mathematics, pure mathematics, and physics. He also spent time working in his father’s publishing and printing press, doing odd jobs like gathering and putting together books.
This week on Write Home About, Fernando talks about the mind, motherland, and more. Here are some excerpts from our chat.
How was your experience of settling in a new country?
Moving to a new country is never easy, and there are many challenges. The biggest is the initial homesickness and then the culture shock, neither never really goes away completely. However, the social environment in developed countries is very welcoming. They are talent, hard work, and value-based systems, where success and positions are based on meritocracy.
I was able to land my first paid job as an intern with Goldman Sachs in London, purely based on my talent and hard work, where they were less interested in my colour, race, religion, or my family connections. Later on, even without a work visa, I was offered full-time employment as an investment banker in London, with a German investment bank, where the bank applied for the work visa on my behalf. These companies in the developed world are only interested in attracting the best talent from around the world and do not discriminate, which is the bedrock of their success.
Can you give us a brief history of your professional experience?
I am an investment banker by profession. I currently run STF Corporate Advisory, a Melbourne-based investment banking advisory firm with a focus on advising Sri Lankan-based listed companies, mainly on mergers and acquisitions (M&A), debt financing, and equity capital raising.
I have worked with several Sri Lankan listed conglomerates, including John Keells Holdings, Hayleys, LOLC Holdings and Browns Investments. Most recently I helped to source and secure a $ 15 million loan from the Washington-based US International Development Finance Corporation (US DFC), America’s development finance institution and an agency of the US Federal Government, for the Sri Lanka-based Colombo Stock Exchange-listed company, BPPL Holdings PLC. Previously I have also sourced and advised LOLC Holdings’ Browns Investments on raising equity investment of $ 30 million from Spanish hospitality giant Barcelo Hotel Group.
Prior to that, I worked as a Strategy and Corporate Advisor in London for Wyndham, one of the largest New York Stock Exchange-listed hospitality companies in the world. Before that I worked as an Investment Banker in London for HSBC Investment Banking Division and German Investment Bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. I also worked as a technology intern for Goldman Sachs in London. I have knowledge of multiple sectors and have covered companies in multiple geographies. I hold a number of degrees from the UK, including a Masters in Engineering from Imperial College London.
Race relations are something lots of people talk about, especially in the context of settling in a foreign country. Did you have any challenges in this regard? How did you navigate them?
A discussion on race relations would have to dive into many subjects like history, economy, geography, psychology, and culture wars, and I don’t think I can do justice to your question with a short answer. I am a Buddhist and I enjoy studying the mind. The human mind can be a beautiful instrument. It can also be one of the most despicable instruments. At its best, we have kindness, compassion, love, music, capability to solve a mathematics problem, come up with a plan to feed the starving, or even reach high levels of meditative concentration. At its lowest levels, it can be a weapon that causes death, creates turmoil, wipes out future generations with an invention such as a nuclear weapon, or harms our closest loved ones with minute acts of hate.
Racism is an act that would belong to the mind’s lowest levels of behaviour, and while societies across the world are promoting equality, it does not mean the human mind can change as rapidly or as much as we would want it to. It takes a lot of work and a lot of understanding of another person’s feelings, lifestyle, and history, and then respecting all of it before the mind agrees to evolve.
While growing up in Sri Lanka during the height of the civil war, I saw race become a dangerous commodity and a weapon used with ignorance. As a young Sinhalese boy growing up in Sri Lanka, I could not comprehend much about the fear aspect of a minority race or the meaning of suppression. I did notice a clear division between races but at the time, I did not understand why.
After settling in a foreign land, I was able to understand more. I personally have not encountered severe or frightening forms of racism or race-related challenges directly. However, there were times when I did feel unequal, and continuous exploration of my own mind revealed that there may have been incidents that had a racial undertone that caused that feeling of being unequal.
While each person will have his own way of navigating these events, I “unknowingly” used meditation to navigate these effects. I say unknowingly because I started meditation with the sole purpose of developing the mind. However, as the mind evolves the effects subsided, and I only understood all of it once they did subside.
Do you have any advice for new immigrants settling in a foreign country?
Immigrants move into a new country with the hope of seeking better opportunities for themselves and their families. Those who take upon such a journey are usually born fighters who dare to take on the challenges of a new land and society. Don’t lose that fighter in you. Instability can be tough so be strong mentally. Have goals and targets and work hard.
To be successful, you might have to work harder than the local population. However, it also means that you grow faster and stronger and become more capable as an individual. No one can take that experience or knowledge away from you. Always be patient with yourself and shower yourself with love. Finally, enjoy the journey the best you can.
How do you think expats such as yourself can meaningfully help our country through this crisis?
To solve the crisis that Sri Lanka is going through, we have to understand the causes of the crisis. While we can point out bad governance and corrupt social systems, we also need to understand what created these systems. Once we understand that, we will have to fix them and ensure that future generations will not re-create the same systems again. Basically, we will not repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
Mother Lanka has produced some great minds. Unfortunately, most of them have left, due to the violent JVP uprising in the late 1980s, the 30-year civil war, and now the current economic crisis. In recent days, I have conversed with many Sri Lankan expats and there is a common underlying theme. All these Sri Lankan expats really love and care about Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans, and really want to change the nation and help our people. Yet, we need a permanent solution. The time for band-aids is over.
I truly believe that this crisis is an opportunity for all these great minds to come back together to a common platform, so that we can find the solutions to resuscitate our mother land back to its glory days. However, we have to understand that we cannot do anything without the people that are currently living in Sri Lanka. They are the ones that will have to take up the responsibility to catalyse the change.
So it is time for all Sri Lankans to join and build a better nation. If we work together, then we can ensure the causes for the current catastrophe cease. If the cause ceases, the effect will cease.
Three things you want to see change in Sri Lankan society and why?
One, I want to see people making a concerted effort to stop lying. This will result in every decision and every activity made by everyone from the tea-shop-owner to the President being a fair and equitable action. This will eliminate corruption, give our youth the chance to get the best jobs if they are good enough, and develop trust between all religions and races so that we can actually enjoy life knowing that we are exactly at a point where things should be, or at least heading in that direction.
Two, people should make informed decisions when they vote and understand that their vote decides the future for better or worse. Why? Because then bad governance will be weeded out, and we can hope for good governance; 6.9 million people voted for the President in the last election, 6.9 million people made this choice.
Three, I want people to really care about one another and have what we in Buddhism call Muditha (sympathetic joy). This is joy at seeing another person being successful. Why? Because then we will all rise together. Remember, one side of the equation: Because Elon Musk is rich, he can pay a lot of people; the other side of the equation: If a lot of people are rich, they can buy his Tesla cars, and then Elon Musk becomes rich. If we understand this, we understand a bigger pie for everyone is just better than a small slice for one person. So be happy when your neighbour is doing great, because it means you will be doing great too.
(The writer is a journalist and editor with over 15 years of experience in Sri Lanka’s print and digital media landscape. She is also a freelance contributor with the SaltWire Network in Canada. She spends her time between both countries)
