Sir Leo Fernando was a Ceylonese businessman and politician. He was a Member of Parliament for the Buttala electorate. A wealthy businessmen, he owned the Panadura Bus Company which was later nationalized to form the Ceylon Transport Board. He also owned many Tea and Rubber plantations in Ceylon. Gikiyanakande and Meddegedara estates are some of them. He also owned significant shareholdings in Associated motorways (AMW), Central hospitals and the Southwestern bus company.
His Gikiyanakande estate was owned previously by Queen Elizabeth's cousin, Lord Elphinstone. The signing of the deeds at the time of purchase by Sir Leo was done at the Buckingham palace in 1950.
He also owned a custom built Ford Lincoln Cosmopolitan on which his name was engraved in all the accessories of the car including the seats. He also owned 3 Rolls Royce silver ghost cars amongst other cars .
He had 3 daughters and a son. They are Kusumalatha, Mallika, Ranjith and Kanthi. One of His daughters, Mallika married Ronnie de Mel a civil servant who later became finance minister of Sri Lanka.
At the time of his death in 1954, his Panadura Motor Transit (PMT) owned more than 350 buses, 200 Lorries and more than 10,000 Acres of Tea and Rubber plantations apart from his significant investments in several top companies in Ceylon.