[11][12] He began his career as an audit trainee for Richard Pieris and moved on to working within sales and the information technology sector by joining Computer Link Pvt Ltd. and then later Precision Tech in 1990 after graduating.

[15] Janaka Ratnayake entered into the real estate industry with Trillium Property Management and Services Limited which was valued by PriceWaterHouseCoopers[16] at Rs.

[24] Most of the financial institutions under the Ceylinco Group faced a high risk of collapsing due to the withdrawal of money by depositors and investors.

[26][27] MBSL took the responsibility of restructuring and reviving many financial institutions[28] such as The Finance Company PLC (the oldest finance company in Sri Lanka),[29] City Housing and Real Estate PLC (the oldest real estate company in Sri Lanka),[30] Asian Finance PLC, Standard Credit, Ceylinco Savings Bank, Finance & Guarantee, Ceylinco Building Society, Fingara Country Club,[31] Ceylinco Sussex Network of Colleges (the largest private school network in Sri Lanka)[32] and ABC Insurance Ltd.[33] In order to further strengthen the financial stability of the banking sector, MBSL acquired the Ceylinco Savings Bank (now MBSL Savings Bank) and ABC Insurance Company (now MBSL Insurance) with an infusion of capital.

[35] During his term at EDB he successfully restored many international trade related ties between countries such as Japan,[36] India,[37] Pakistan,[38] and the UK.

[50] Within the first few months of his appointment, the PUCSL approved Sri Lanka's largest power plant in over a decade, which will contribute 300MW to the national grid.