Kattiya, 40, is first senior vice president of Kasikornbank (Kbank), and her father, Sangvian Indaravijaya, was a pioneer in Thailand's equity market.

"I want to be like my dad, but I don't want to be in the same field he was," she says, adding that she aims for his excellence and the same level of acceptance by the Thai financial community.

"My dad worked too hard, right until the end of his life," she said. "Although he was in hospital for about three months before he passed away, he still worked."

However, she admits to having inherited his capacity for volunteering for work that nobody else wants to do.

Kattiya is currently responsible for the Retail Banking Department in the country's fourth-largest bank. She has been working for Kbank for nearly 20 years, having started in 1987 when her father recommended she take the job.

It was after she obtained a bachelor's degree in marketing from Chulalongkorn University. She had plans to study abroad for her master's degree but wanted some work experience first. She began in the Lending Department, working with manufacturers and farmers.

After serving at Kbank for two years, she was given a scholarship by the bank to study for her Master of Business Administration degree in finance and investment at the University of Texas. She returned to Kbank in 1995 and has been there ever since.

"I have enjoyed working in the financial sector like my father advised," she said, adding that her surname was not a ticket to a good job at a financial institution, because her father had no influence over the bank.

During her 20 years at Kbank, Kattiya took part in the reform of the Kasikorn Group when she was a member of the Corporate Strategy Department from 2000-04.

Once the Bank of Thailand allowed commercial banks to conduct full financial services, the bank formed Kasikorn Leasing to offer auto hire-purchase loans and Kasikorn Securities, she said.

K Securities was set up by purchasing an existing securities licence from Asset Plus Securities, now renamed Asia Plus Securities, which allowed the bank to achieve the universal banking concept more quickly.

Currently, the bank has five subsidiaries: Kasikorn Asset Management, Kasikorn Factoring, Kasikorn Research, Kasikorn Leasing and Kasikorn Securities.

Despite intensified competition in retail banking, Kattiya maintains confidence in Kbank's teamwork, and industry rivalries have become a challenge for her.

"I have no working philosophy," she said. "I just do my best, day by day."

She also has no precise plans for her future but hopes to help drive the bank's retail business to make Kasikornbank the top choice of Thai customers.

Somruedi Banchongduang

The Nation