Ekjaree Thanasawangkul
Ekjaree recently joined the Australian Alumni Association (Thailand) as a committee member responsible for Corporate Social Responsibility and supports the Board Members to promote and manage the CSR projects, seeking partnerships with and sponsorship from other organisations to develop CSR Projects.
Ekjaree graduated from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, Queensland in 1995. She completed Post Graduate Diploma in Communication and Graduate Certificate of Management, awarded by Faculty of Business.
Prior to studying in Australia, Ekjaree received Bachelor of Arts from Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University, and Graduate Diploma in Translation from Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University. She gained some years of work experience at Interlanguage Translation Centre, and Business Information Division at German-Thai Chamber of Commerce, respectively, before leaving for Australia.
Her new life chapter began when she graduated from QUT in 1995. She first started working for Education Resource Centre at the Australian Embassy Bangkok where the HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn presided the grand opening ceremony. It was first officially launched centre to provide information for prospective students to study in Australia, and to support both Thai and Australian universities to further develop some academic projects and degree programmes in collaboration with AUSAID.
This centre was managed under contract between Australian International Education Foundation (AIEF) of Australia Ministry of Education and IDP Education Australia, a non-profit organisation founded by Australian universities to promote education of Australia and to develop academic programmes. It was a good opportunity for her to spend a few years working in such great work environment and learned more about education system of Australia and of other countries like UK, US, Canada, etc.
She then worked for the prominent property firm CB Richard Ellis before joining the Secretariat of International Chamber of Commerce (Thailand) – an organisation whose role aims to promote international trade and develop the private sector in Thailand. For the next four years, this role enabled her to forge connections with the Ministry of Commerce and Foreign Affairs as well as international organisations like UNESCAP, diplomatic missions, academic, politic, businesspeople, and professional bodies.
From ICC (Thailand), Ekjaree then joined Dataconsult, a business consulting firm organising seminars and conferences, including publishing business reports and monthly publications. Working at Dataconsult allowed her to learn about business practices and connect with top level managers of international business organisations, government bodies as well as diplomats.
After nearly 10 years at Dataconsult, she then worked for BRS (Business Research Specialist) – a market research company in the role of Business Development; an Executive Director of New Zealand Thai Chamber of Commerce; and as a business development role at Arcadia Engineering – an engineering design and consulting company. During these times, she also studied law at Thammasat University.
After completing her Bachelor of Law at Thammasat University, she joined British Chamber of Commerce Thailand in the role of Business Services Manager and was primarily responsible for the Export Opportunities project initiated by the British government – an online business platform for business matching between UK suppliers and Thai companies. Currently, she works as the Manager of EIS (Economic Intelligence Services) at TDRI (Thailand Development Research Institute).
Ekjaree hopes that her past work experience, her connections with professional networks in the private and public sectors will contribute the help her to the AAA’s CSR initiatives as well as promote better trade ties between Thailand and Australia.
