25 Facts About Somkid Jatusripitak

Somkid Jatusripitak is a Thai economist, business theorist, and politician.

Somkid Jatusripitak was a co-founder and leader of the Thai Rak Thai Party and was mainly responsible for developing the party's progressive and reformist economic and social platform.

Somkid Jatusripitak's great-great-grandfather immigrated from China during the reign of the Jiaqing Emperor.

One of his older brothers, Som Somkid Jatusripitak later became president of Siam City Bank and Commerce Minister in Chavalit Yongchaiyudh's government.

Somkid Jatusripitak went to Triam Udom Suksa School and graduated with a bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Economics, Thammasat University in 1972.

Somkid Jatusripitak served as an Associate Dean at NIDA Business School.

Somkid Jatusripitak's thinking was greatly influenced by Michael Porter's "Competitiveness of Nations".

Somkid Jatusripitak focused much of his academic research on the development of national and business competitiveness.

In 1997, Somkid Jatusripitak co-authored "The Marketing of Nations: A Strategic Approach to Building National Wealth" with Philip Kotler.

Somkid Jatusripitak was a co-founder of the Manager Media Group, along with Sondhi Limthongkul.

Somkid Jatusripitak played a role in the establishment of the Phatra Research Institute.

Somkid Jatusripitak became a Director of the Saha Pattanapibul Group, a major Thai consumer goods conglomerate.

Somkid Jatusripitak was appointed to become Advisor of the Stock Exchange of Thailand, Director of PTTEP, and Director of the Petroleum Authority of Thailand.

In 2012, Somkid Jatusripitak founded the Thailand Future Study Institute, a think tank which is sponsored by major Thai business corporations and seeks to provide research and consulting to public bodies and private sector.

Somkid Jatusripitak was one of the co-founders of the Thai Rak Thai party in 1998, along with party leader Thaksin Shinawatra.

Somkid Jatusripitak has been called "the man behind Thaksinomics", and was the mastermind of the populist policies that helped propel the Thai Rak Thai party to a landslide election victory in 2001.

Somkid Jatusripitak pioneered the TRT party's rural small and medium enterprise policy.

At the time, Somkid Jatusripitak was in Paris, attending the Thai-France Cultural Exhibition with Princess Sirindhorn and Foreign Minister Kantathi Supamongkhon.

Somkid Jatusripitak kept a low profile, until on 2 October 2006 he resigned from the Thai Rak Thai Party, along with Thaksin Shinawatra.

Somkid Jatusripitak continued to lead a low profile, until in February 2007, he was appointed head of a government committee charged with "preaching" King Bhumibol's self-sufficient economy policy.

Somkid Jatusripitak appointment was supported by General Saprang Kalyanamitr, a powerful member of the junta, and Sondhi Limthongkul of the People's Alliance for Democracy, a long-time colleague of Somkid Jatusripitak's.

Somkid Jatusripitak later decided to resign from the committee, which was then dissolved.

In early May 2007, a group of former elected senators said they were ready to support Somkid Jatusripitak in forming a new political party, the so-called Dharma Thippatai group.

However, on 30 May 2007 the Constitutional Tribunal had produced a verdict, barring all 111 former executive members of Thai Rak Thai Party, including Somkid Jatusripitak, from holding political office for five years.

In March 2006, during the height of the anti-Thaksin protests, Somkid Jatusripitak underwent balloon angioplasty surgery to relieve a blood clot in an artery near his heart.