Korean invasion

"I envy [them] because even savers are now buying Korean bonds. It hurts me [as to] why we [Thais] don't know how to spend our own money," he said. 

Most admired company

CP All, the operator of 7-Eleven convenience store was named Thailand's most-admired company, by readers of the Wall Street Journal Asia in the newspaper's annual survey of Asia's 200 most-admired companies. Siam Cement came in second followed by Charoen Pokphand Foods, Bumrungrad Hospital and Kasikorn Bank. On the innovation index, True Corp, another CP subsidiary was voted Thailand's most-innovative company.

GM's womens council

Although General Motors Thailand and its marketing subsidiary Chevrolet Thailand employ only 250 women among their 3,000 employees, the company set up the GM Thailand's Women Council in 2006.

Last month, the council announced a set of policies called "Drive Success through Diversity", which is intended to help women express themselves more openly, work at higher-level management positions and support them in their efforts to balance family, social and private obligations.

New Samitivej appointee

Dr Dhun Damrongsak has been appointed the hospital director for Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital, replacing Associate Emeritus Teerachai Chantarojanasiri.

Managing director and chief executive of Samitivej Raymond Chong said Dr Dhun's expertise, especially in aviation medicine, will further expand the company's strengths.

"With the hospital being strategically located near Suvarna-bhumi Airport, we strongly believe that the hospital, under his leadership, will become a medical hub that will provide the best treatment to patients suffering from air-travel sickness. And that it will take part in evacuation and emergency treatment for patients transferred by aeroplane," he said.

Dhun is currently the director of business alliance for Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital. Before joining Samitivej, he was the aviation medicine and evacuation consultant for many leading hospitals and the medical director of International SOS Services (Thailand). And before that, he was the director of Wing 4, Air Force Hospital, Takli, Nakhon Sawan province and the head of Safety Division at the Institute of Aviation Medicine.

Dhun has a bachelor's degree in medicine from Chiang Mai University, a master's degree in public health from Mahidol University, Diploma in Aviation Medicine from the Royal College of Physicians, London, and Certificate of Occupational medicine from Edinburgh University, UK.

Media policy

At his recent meeting with stock analysts, GMM Grammy's chief operating officer Sumeth Damrongchaitham fielded an unexpected question from a participant - why had Grammy allowed Sanya Kunakorn, a popular television anchor who hosted a Grammy talk show, to invite singers from Grammy's rival music camp. Although the person did not name the singers, Sumeth responded quickly that he had seen the particular programme and knew the singers invited were Four-Mod, a sexy duo from RS Promotion, Grammy's major rival.

Sumeth explained that Sanya, whose nickname is Du+, did the best thing as a mediaperson who should not care whether or not he was hosting Grammy's competitors.

"The major objective [of Grammy's media subsidiaries] is to make a show popular and attract advertisements. Du+ is a media [person], not our song-promotional tool. Our radio programmes also [play] competitors' songs"

"By the way, sisters Four-Mod are cute," Sumeth said.

Jungceylon's new officer

Pravit Janyasithikul was, last month, appointed chief executive of Phuket Square, which operates Jungceylon shopping mall in Phuket.

Ian quits AsiaSoft

Red Dawn Communications has announced two key hires - Pearline Chan from a sporting background (from Netball Singapore) and Ian Purnomo (from online-games company AsiaSoft).

Ian has studied communications with a specialisation in media, film and video gaming. Recruited as the agency's game publicist, Ian will handle Asia Pacific public relations duties for Games Convention, which is the region's sole event that focuses on digital entertainment, computer games, interactive entertainment, learning software and hardware.

Ian joins the agency from his stint at AsiaSoft, where his work covered marketing communications, public relations and copywriting.

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