Dr Dileep de Silva had his entire school education at St.Thomas College, Mount Lavinia from 1974 to 1987. He had a distinguished career during this school days. He won more than 25 academic prizes including the prize for the best all-round student in 1986. He represented the college in athletics and in debating. He was the Captain of the Buck House and a senior school prefect.

During the time of university closure from 1987-1990, he was employed in a bank and qualified himself as a chartered banker and a management accountant.

He joined the Faculty of Dental Sciences, University of Peradeniya in 1990 and obtained his BDS degree in 1995. He went to obtain MBA, MSc and MD (Community Dentistry), all from the University of Colombo. He worked for National Health Service, UK for 2 years. In 2011, he obtained PhD in Health Management from the University of Southampton, UK.

Dr. De Silva won the World Prize for application of Operational Research for Health Development awarded by the International Federation of Operational Research Societies in 2011. He had also won the Commonwealth Foundation Fellowship as the nominee of the Common Wealth Dental Association (2001) and a Fellowship to travel around the globe by ship from the Government of Japan (1993). In 2013, he was awarded the National Apex Award under Health and Medicine category by the Organization of Professional Associations (OPA) Sri Lanka. He had delivered the Britto Muthunayagam Oration (2011), SLDA Oration (2011) and Oration of the College of Dentistry and Stomatology (2014).

During his tenure as the President of the SLDA, the cabinet approval was obtained for a block of land at Battaramulla to build the SLDA Office and Training complex. Cloaks for the SLDA Council members and SLDA maze was designed during his period. Workshops on Professional etiquette and a SLDA Family Day – an event with programs for all ages; were held for the first time in SLDA’s history. He introduced the idea of publishing articles in the SLDA monthly Newsletter to uplift the professional outlook of the membership. For the first time, SLDA organized a Career Guidance program for Final year Dental students. Membership of the SLDA increased by more than 10%, during Dr De Silva’ tenure as the President.

Dr. Dileep De Silva is a Consultant in Community Dentistry and a Consultant to the Health Economic Unit of the Ministry of Health. He is married to Dr (Mrs) Mihirangi Rubasinghe who is a Consultant ENT surgeon and they are blessed with one daughter, Damindee; who is a student at St. Bridget Convent Colombo 7.