Rayo De Alwis Withanage

Mr. Withanage rose to prominence early in his career as a financier with the founding of BMB Group in 2008. Under his leadership, BMB evolved into a highly selective multi-family office and investment platform, serving sovereign families and ultra-high-net-worth investors across Asia and the Middle East. The platform was described by Euromoney as “one of the world’s most exclusive private investment institutions,” with assets under management exceeding $15 billion. Through BMB, Mr. Withanage also established BMB Islamic, advising governments and institutions on Sharia-compliant finance and large-scale capital deployment.

He later acquired and led EMP Global, one of the pioneering private equity firms in emerging markets. Originally founded by Moeen Qureshi, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan and former head of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), EMP Global became one of the earliest and largest platforms dedicated to infrastructure and private equity investment across emerging economies. The firm deployed more than $7 billion across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, positioning itself at the forefront of sovereign-backed investment strategies during a formative period for global capital flows. Under Mr. Withanage’s leadership, the platform operated at the intersection of governments, institutions, and long-duration capital.

Building on this foundation, Mr. Withanage co-founded Scepter Partners in collaboration with Blackstone Asia Advisory Partners, focusing on large-scale strategic investments in global energy and infrastructure. These initiatives further cemented his reputation for operating at sovereign scale, structuring complex transactions aligned with national and institutional priorities.

Following a period of active investment leadership, Mr Withanage undertook a strategic sabbatical focused on philanthropy, research and technology development through the Withanage Foundation. During this period, his work expanded from capital allocation into the invention and development of new technologies and commercial platforms.

By 2026, he had created a portfolio of Impact Technologies with a combined enterprise value exceeding $1 billion, spanning artificial intelligence, blockchain-based legal and financial systems, clean technology, and gaming and digital philanthropy.

Across his financial career, Mr Withanage's experience in infrastructure investment, sovereign wealth management and financial systems has increasingly converged around Sovereign Infrastructure—the investment institutions, financial systems and strategic infrastructure through which nations mobilise long-term capital and develop productive economic capacity.

His work today is focused on Sovereign Infrastructure and Impact Technologies, bringing together more than two decades of investment experience with the development of scalable financial, institutional and technological systems.

Mr. Withanage was trained in finance, government, and law. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Government and an LLB in Law from the University of Auckland, completed postgraduate studies in finance at the University of Chicago, and earned an MSc from the London School of Economics. He is also of the House of Alakēśvara-De Alwis, a Sri Lankan lineage with an eight-century tradition of leadership in government, finance, science, and philanthropy.