Former Stock Exchange of Thailand president Charamporn Jotikasthira has been appointed the new president of Thai Airways International Plc (THAI).
Former SET president Charamporn Jotikasthira named new THAI president (Bloomberg photo)
Mr Charamporn was recently nominated unanimously as the airline's new president by a THAI selection committee and the board of directors on Wednesday approved the nomination.
Areepong Bhoocha-oom, permanent secretary for energy and acting THAI board chairman, said Mr Charamporn was a capable man who had experience in the administration of large organisations, especially those related to information technology.
Mr Charamporn graduated with a masters degree in business adminsitration from Harvard University and received his bachelors in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mr Charamporn is recognised as one of the most outstanding SET presidents whose vision was to make the exchange one of the world's leading bourses over the next decade.
Under Mr Charamporn's leadership, the SET grew three-fold in terms of trading volume and became the top trading market in Asean, surpassing the Singapore Exchange for the past two years.
“Mr Charamporn has a strong grounding in IT which will be a help in setting up the company’s IT management system as THAI is focusing on investing in this sector, particularly with its ticketing system,” Mr Areepong said.
“All board members, executives and employees have to take part in the company’s administration, not only Mr Charamporn."
A remuneration committee will discuss Mr Charamporn's salary and benefits and will seek approval for his position from the State Enterprise Policy Office (Sepo).
The former SET president is expected to start working at THAI next month. He will help to determine the company’s mid-term strategic policies, Mr Areepong said.
THAI has had a series of losses in recent times. There was a marginal improvement in the losses to 7.66 billion baht in the second quarter from 8.44 billion baht in the same period last year. But for the first half, its losses widened to 10.30 billion baht from 155 million baht year-on-year.