Jagath Sumathipala was born on the 30th April 1960 in Colombo. He is the son of U W Sumathipala and Milina Sumathipala and is the third child in the family of five daughters and two sons. He married Samantha Kumari Karunaratne on the 8th May 1987 and they are blessed with two daughters and two sons namely: Puthula, Wagisha, Chadu and Chathula.
Upon completing his studies at his alma mater, Ananda College Colombo, Jagath proceeded to UK for his higher studies in Business Management.
He assumed duties as the Managing Director of the Sumathi Group of Companies in 1980 and in 2017 he became the Chairman / Managing Director of Sumathi Holdings (Pvt) Ltd. which consists of eight diversified subsidiaries in the areas of Information Technology, Retail Trade, Health Care, Hospitality, Investments, Hydro Power, Film Production and Security Services.
He has served as the Honorary President of the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress (ACBC), the premier Buddhist organization in Sri Lanka, from 2006 to 2014 and also was elected as the Honorary President once again in 2018. He is a Vice - President of the World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB) and Member of the Governing Council / Director of the Nagananda International Institute for Buddhist Studies (NIIBS). He is a past President and vice patron of the Billiards & Snooker Association of Sri Lanka.
Wife
Samantha Sumathipala is a Director of Sumathi Global Consolidated (Pvt) Ltd, and also served as a Vice President and the Chairperson of National Council for Religious and Cultural Affairs of the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress (ACBC).
Daughters
The elder daughter, Puthula Sumathipala has completed her Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and Master of Laws (LLM) at University of Buckingham, UK. She is currently serving as a Vice President of the World Fellowship of Buddhist Youth (WFBY), and is the Chairperson of the Standing Committee, Youth Development of World Fellowship of Buddhist Youth (WFBY). She is married to Janaka Mayakaduwa, Director of Alpex Marine (Pvt) Ltd.
The second daughter, Wagisha Sumathipala, has completed her BSc degree in Business Economics at the University of Buckingham, UK and MSc degree in Business Economics at City University of London. She is married to Mr. Iruka Dedigama, Director of Dedigama Jewellers.
Sons
The elder son, Chadu Sumathipala has completed his Bachelor of Commerce (Management) at Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia and currently serves as the Executive Director at Sumathi Holdings (Pvt) Ltd and directly oversees the Mainframe (Pvt) Ltd, Sumathi Information Technologies & Retail Information Technologies (Pvt) Ltd.
The youngest son, Chathula Sumathipala holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting & Marketing from Monash University Melbourne, Australia and currently serves as the Director, Business Strategies & Development at Sumathi Holdings (Pvt) Ltd. He directly oversees Lokx Security Services (Pvt) Ltd, Great Wall Restaurants, & Lifeserv (Pvt) Ltd.