Withanage is a Prominent Sri Lankan Banking family

Business Interests

The Withanage family is a major shareholder in The British International Group ‘BIG’. BIG is an Investment & Advisory firm that revives the traditional British Merchant through a 21st century lens. BIG builds new institutions for a world of shifting tectonics in trade & investment.

“BIG EXPORTS THE BEST OF COMMONWEALTH LEADERSHIP TO BUILD A NEW GENERATION OF ORGANISATIONS APPLIED FOR THE DIGITAL WORLD “

British Institutions have a long history of achievement and good governance in law, finance, defence, industrials, technology and social services. BIG draws leadership from Britain and the Commonwealth, which consists of some of the most successful individuals in these fields. We convene the most internationally minded of these luminaries and associated corporations to build new corporations in the form of:

  • Advisory Businesses

  • Digital Banks

  • Financial Centres

  • Online Exchanges

  •  Investment Firms

BIG deploys new businesses that are at the forefront of tokenisation, fintech and Artificial intelligence. We will harness opportunities offered by the fourth industrial revolution.

Rahula Withanage Sr.

Mr. Rahula Withanage Sr. is an accomplished financier with over 20 years leading a commercial multi-family office. Mr Withanage was previously a senior advisor at Deloitte & Touche and Andersen Consulting working with intergovernmental institutions. During this time, he specialized in treasury, asset management, corporatization and efficiency management with state owned enterprises and multilateral institutions, including major projects funded by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.

Subsequently, he had a 10-year career in Brunei where he worked with Brunei Telecom and eventually Royal Brunei Airlines, where he was a director and head of management audit. Mr. Withanage continued as an advisor to the chairman and board of directors of Royal Brunei Airlines, until he co-founded the Withanage Group with operations in Bahrain and the UAE. Rahula Withanage Sr. was a co-founder and CEO of the BMB Group. He now runs the Withanage Family Office and affiliate companies and is chairman of the Withanage Foundation.

Rahul R. Withanage

Mr Rahul R. Withanage is a prominent entrepreneur and philanthropist. Mr Withanage established BMB in 2006 which grew into a multibillion-dollar investment platform with over $15Billion in assets under management. Trained as a M&A lawyer he led BMB to become one of the leading asset management vehicles to unify ruling families from the Middle East & Asia, across diversified holdings.

Mr Withanage led the acquisition of EMP Global, which was one of the largest players in emerging markets private equity with over $7.5Billion in assets under management. He also instrumental in acquiring the Deutsche Bank Islamic finance business which was a pioneer in Islamic product development. Mr. Withanage co-founded Scepter Capital Partners in 2014 as a direct investment firm with Blackstone Asia Advisory Partners. Mr Withanage moved to run the Withanage foundation in 2020 where his particular interest is in developing new platforms that advance virtue capitalism in scale.  

“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”

— Winston S. Churchill