A pioneer at only 40

Patama Chantaruck

Patama Chantaruck is the first woman to hold the position of managing director of Microsoft (Thailand) and one of only eight women among 128 country managers leading Microsoft's subcompanies around the world.

She is not new to the software industry, having worked for Microsoft for 12 years before being elevated to the managing director's role in Thailand at the age of 40.

Her first position at the giant software firm was product marketing manager, and her first job was to oversee marketing development of the company's desktop products.

Before joining Microsoft, Patama earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and software engineering from Prince of Songkhla University's Hat Yai campus. She was one of 30,000 candidates from throughout the Kingdom to applied for Bangkok Bank's Student Internship Programme and one of only 100 selected for the programme in Bangkok.

"At that time, I realised there was a big difference in access to information between students in the city and students upcountry," she recalls.

After finishing the Bangkok Bank programme, a 24-year-old Patama landed a job as a software engineer at Seagate Technology (Thailand). She says she got the job not only because of her university qualifications, but also because of her niche skill of software programming around the Macintosh platform.

She worked for Seagate for four years before moving to join Shinawatra Data Com, a joint-venture company between Shin Corp and Singapore Telecom, in the role of business-development manager. After a year in that position, she decided to go abroad to study, later graduating with master's degrees in finance from Washington State University and computer engineering from the University of Washington. Then she approached Microsoft Corp headquarters in Redmond, Washington, for a job.

"I applied for jobs at three companies: Intel, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft. But I'd fallen in love with Seattle, so I did not follow up with the other two companies and waited for an answer from Microsoft instead," Patama says.

After no fewer than 15 interviews, Microsoft finally gave her a job as product-development manager, overseeing one of the corporation's most famous operating systems: Windows 95. Patama says it was a challenging and exciting time, being part of the transition from the Windows 3.1 platform to Windows 95. She was only 28 at the time.

Then Patama was invited to join Microsoft (Thailand) by its first managing director, Arporn Sripipat. The company had been up and running for only two years. She decided to leave Microsoft's headquarters to become the 13th employee of Microsoft (Thailand) and introduce the company's desktop products to Thailand as an emerging market.

"My first job was to introduce Windows 95 and Office 95 into the Thai market. Then came the execution of other famous suites, including Windows 98, Office 98, Windows NT Workstation and Office 2000," she says.

In late 1999, after launching Office 2000, Patama was invited to return to Microsoft's headquarters to work as marketing manager for worldwide sales channels for Microsoft Office. Her role was to oversee 109 subsidiary companies around the world, and she was the only Asian woman on the team.

Her role was later changed to that of regional marketing manager, overseeing sales channels focused on Asia. During three years in that role, she succeeded in achieving widespread adoption of Microsoft products in Asian markets.

Then she was appointed as Microsoft's director of marketing for worldwide system-builder channels and became the only Asian employee at the worldwide managerial level for the giant software firm.

"I worked and collaborated with 128 country managers around the world. My job was to develop and manage the channels of Microsoft's local original-equipment manufacturers in each country," Patama says.

There were 200 people on her team, located in Microsoft's country offices.

In late 2005, she moved again to become director of marketing for the company's Emerging Segments Market Development Group.

"This role was to oversee users and markets which were Microsoft's new areas of focus. I worked in this position until early in 2007, when I was given the chance to come back home again, after eight years, to become managing director of Microsoft (Thailand)," she says.

In her new role, Patama says she has three main missions. These are to build Microsoft (Thailand) into the first choice of Thais as a place to work; lead the organisation to become a part of Thai life and society; and try to give Thais a greater chance to access technology through the promotion of education, local innovation and job opportunities.

"Thais are proficient and smart but lack opportunities. My job is to create and offer opportunities to them. Thailand is one of the most important countries in Microsoft's strategy. With my connections from eight years at its headquarters, I think I can invite investments in my country to help create job opportunities and technology development and to transfer technology to the Thais," Patama says.

At 40, Patama still enjoys her work. She says she is happy to wake up each morning in the knowledge that the job she loves is waiting for her to arrive. And her life goes on, according to her own plan and design.

Asina Pornwasin

The Nation