Priyantha is currently the Chief of the Energy Sector Group in the Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Priyantha has over 30 years of professional experience including 13+ years in ADB. He joined ADB in April 2008 and was appointed Director, South Asia Energy Division in March 2017 prior to assuming the current position in August 2021. Before joining ADB, he served as the founder Director-General of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka and a Senior Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Moratuwa.
Priyantha holds a Doctorate in Power Systems Economics from the Imperial College London. He was also a regular Academic Visitor at Imperial College London during the period 1993-to 1998. He was the Chairman of the South Asia Forum for Infrastructure Regulators (SAFIR) in 2006/07 and was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Ceylon Electricity Board and Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority. He was an Advisory Board member of the Melbourne Energy Institute at the University of Melbourne from 2016-to 2019.
He is a Chartered Electrical Engineer, a Member of the Institute of Engineering Technology (IET), UK, a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka. He is a Past President of the Sri Lanka Energy Managers Association (SLEMA).