Saman Kelegama is the Executive Director of the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS). Prior to this appointment as the Executive Director he was a Research Fellow of the IPS from 1990-1994. He is a trade policy economist who also works on industrial economics, public enterprise reform, and macroeconomics.

He obtained his doctorate -- D.Phil (Econ) from Oxford University, UK in 1990. He has an MSc (Econ) from Oxford University and MSc (Maths) first class degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, India. He was a Government of India Cultural Scholar for his undergraduate studies during 1978-1983.

He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Australia South Asia Research Centre, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia (1998); Government of India Distinguished Visiting Scholar (1998); Salzburg Fellow (1997); USIS International Visitor (1993); and Visiting Fellow, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands (1992/3). He has been (and is) a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Colombo, Post-Graduate Institute of Management (PIM), Sri Lanka, Bandaranaike Diplomatic Training Institute (BDTI), Sri Lanka and several other institutions. He has served as a consultant to the World Bank, ADB, UNDP, UNIDO, ILO, UN-ESCAP, Commonwealth Secretariat, among other organizations.

Dr. Kelegama has served in the Board of Directors of many government, private sector and professional institutions, and currently serves in the governing boards of a number of regional and international institutions. Dr. Kelegama has also served as Chairman in many Sri Lankan and regional associations, and groupings and has represented the Sri Lankan academia at a number of official delegations. During 2002-2004, Dr. Kelegama was the Economic Advisor to the Minister of Industries, Sri Lanka.

Dr. Kelegama has presented papers in many international seminars and delivered public lectures in many fora both in Sri Lanka and overseas. He serves as the co-editor of the South Asia Economic Journal which is published by Sage International Publications, and serves in the editorial Board of the PIM Journal – Sri Lanka Journal of Management. He has published a number of books and over 100 articles in refereed journals. Most of his writings have been on the Sri Lankan economy, regional integration and WTO issues. A book he edited titled: “Economic Policy in Sri Lanka: Issues and Debates” in 2004 is one of the most comprehensive and up-to-date books on the Sri Lankan economy. He has also written to many local and international Magazines and served as a popular columnist to local newspapers.