Ms. Wasantha Perera is the present Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Power & Energy in Sri Lanka. Prior to this she has served as Permanent Secretary to the Ministries of Health and, Science, Technology & Vocational Training

She is an officer of Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS). Having worked in many different disciplines she has served in key positions in the Ministries of Finance, Defence and Foreign Affairs.

She has served for the UNDP as National Project Coordinator in Foreign Aid Coordination Project and a Tsunami Recovery Project.

During 2010-2012, she served as a senior diplomat in Washington DC.

Mrs Perera has represented Sri Lanka in many different fora, that includes Annual Meetings and Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.

Ms. Perera was instrumental in establishing Sri Lanka's premier national security think-tank and research body, the ‘Institute of National Security Studies of Sri Lanka'.

In 2017 Ms. Wasantha Perera was appointed as the first female Director General of - Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration – the training institution of Civil Servants.

A Science graduate from the University of Peradeniya, Ms. Perera possesses a Masters degree in Project Management from the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia and Postgraduate Diploma in Management from the University of Sri Jayawardenapura and Postgraduate Diploma in Economics Development from the University of Colombo.