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8 Dec, 2016

Virachai Vannukul, Managing Director, Air Siam

ASEAN Travel & Tourism Hall of Fame – Initiated by Travel Impact Newswire Executive Editor Imtiaz Muqbil to recognise the many veterans who helped grow and shape ASEAN tourism over the last 50 years.

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Date and Place of Birth: July 21, 1934, Bangkok.

Marital status: Married and separated

Education

Diploma of Higher Accounting 1950, The School of Accountancy, London

Presidential MBA from Pepperdine University, California, 1978, graduated with honors.

Second MBA (1985) and MA (1983) in Executive Management, Claremont Graduate University, California

Second doctoral program, Ph.D. in Organization and Management at Capella University, Minnesota, 2002.

1990, National Defense College, receiving the “Most Outstanding Thesis” award.

Certified Management Consultant (CMC), USA , Certified Computing Professional (CCP), USA, Chartered Fellow of Charted Management Institute, (CMgr FCMI),UK, Academic Fellow (FICMCI) of International Council of Certified Management Consultants Institute, Netherland, Fellow of The Institute of Industrial Managers (FIIM) UK, and Fellow of The Institute Of Administrative Management (F Inst. AM), UK.

Speaks Thai, English, and can communicate in Japanese and Chinese (Cantonese) dialect.

Career

1962-70 Thai Airways International, Vice President of Finance & Administration, also Special Advisor to Chairman

1972 – 1976 Consultant and then Managing Director, Air Siam

1976 – 1980 Consultant and Advisor to Sir Anthony Ryan, Founder of Ryan Air

1979 – 1981 Advisor to Air Lanka

1984  Advisor to the Chairman, Bangkok Metropolitan Bank.

1988 – 1990, Senior Executive VP of Bangkok Metropolitan Bank.

1987 – 1990, Chairman, CB Richard Ellis (Thailand) Co., Ltd.

1994 – 1997, Advisor to the Chairman and CEO of Bangkok Bank plc.

1994- 95 – Chief Strategic Officer and Corporate Turnaround Architect, Bangkok Airways

From 1997 to present, Managing Partner of VG Consultant Company Limited, and Chairman Emeritus of Institute of Management Consultants of Thailand.

Academic Research

“The Strategic Plan Development for Skybridge”, a research project of a major Low Cost Air Carrier in Europe – RyanAir of Ireland.

“Soo Yippoon – National Strategy for Trade and Economic Relationship with Japan”.

“Thailand’s Economic Crisis of 1997: Its Continuation and Possible Cure: A Case Study”.

Authored several hundred articles related to aviation and tourist industries, strategic planning, systems and procedures, and matrix management and organizational developments.

Awards

1990 Annual Honorable Executives Award from Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand.

1991 Outstanding Alumnus Award from Pepperdine University, USA.

2013 Chartered Fellow Award from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), UK.

2013 Academic Fellow Award from the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes.

Other activities

Dean of School of Management of a local university, Director of English MBA program, Lecturer of National Defense College Of Thailand, Police Higher Educational Institute, Asian Business Forum, and Pepperdine University as well as several Thai and foreign universities, local, and abroad.

A pioneer in the efforts to set up privately-owned aviation companies in Thailand. The rise and fall of Air Siam in the 1970s is one of the great stories of the nascent years of Asia-Pacific aviation. It is also one of the least-known, but proves that Asian aviation visionaries existed long before Tony Fernandes came along.

Source: Virachai Vannakul and Travel Impact Newswire archives