New team set to take the reins at KBank

Kasikornbank is ushering in a new era with Banthoon Lamsam taking over the chairmanship of the bank from his uncle, Banyong, while new presidents have also been named.

With effect from yesterday, Banthoon will no longer be the bank's president and chief executive officer. At a press conference, the bank announced that Predee Daochai and Teeranun Srihong had been named as co-presidents of the bank.

They will be the seventh and eighth presidents of the bank. Other than Prasarn Trairatvorakul, who took the helm before resigning to become governor of the Bank of Thailand, they will be the only other presidents of the bank not belonging to the Lamsam family. The first five presidents were Choti Lamsam, Kasem Lamsam, Bancha Lamsam, Banyong Lamsam and Banthoon Lamsam.

The bank yesterday announced that four directors had tendered their resignations effective from today. They are chairman Banyong Lamsam, Sukri Kaocharern, Elizabeth Zam and Hiroshi Ota. Aside from Banthoon, among the five new directors who have won approval from the Bank of Thailand are Somchai Bulsook and Krisada Lamsam who will serve as vice chairmen of the bank. Krisada's last position was senior executive vice president and business domain coordinator.

The bank's shareholders, on April 3, will also be asked to vote on the appointment of former energy minister Piyasvasti Amranand as an independent director along with Kalin Sarasin. Piyasvasti was a former chairman of Kasikorn Asset Management and resigned to become president of Thai Airways International.

Predee, 54, graduated with a Bachelor of Law degree from Thammasat University, before being granted a scholarship from KBank and graduating with a Master of Comparative Law from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In 1982, he joined KBank's legal department, and later became first vice president, co-general manager, Hong Kong branch, the overseas branch administration and correspondent relations department. He then served in the manufacturing and service industry credit department, the credit and collateral control department, and the debt-restructuring department.

He was promoted to first senior vice president in 2000 and executive vice president in 2004.

He was appointed senior executive vice president and risk domain coordinator in 2010.

Teeranun Srihong, 47, graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Chulalongkorn University, before being given a scholarship by KBank to pursue his Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He joined KBank's treasury department in 1988, and became first vice president of the department, then senior vice president of the wholesale business marketing and product department. He was promoted to first senior vice president in 2001, executive vice president in 2006, and senior executive vice president and the infrastructure domain coordinator in 2010.