Do not let interim Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Pridiyathorn's personal enthusiasm fool you, or the fact that sometimes he rides a motorcycle to work. Pridiyathorn plays a calculated game with twist. He is sometimes seen as cunning and not interested in earning respect.

But for those who have worked under him - at the Bank of Thailand (BOT) or the Export-Import Bank of Thailand - he has won nothing but praise. "He is exceptional," said one senior BOT official.

Pridiyathorn has always been considered a trouble-shooter. He helped former Finance Minister Tarrin Nimmanahaeminda after the 1997 crisis as a go-between with the central bank. And like it or not to ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Pridiyathorn was a nucleus for maintaining international confidence in the eyes of the foreign investors.

Pridiyathorn spent much of his career at Thai Farmers Bank, since renamed Kasikornbank, where he was both a top banker and a top administrator. At the BOT, he was one of the youngest central-bank governors in the world and last year won The Bankers Magazine's Asian Bankers Award for best central-bank governor. But his new role is his biggest challenge yet.