ABOUT US

After nearly 14 years in Bangkok, Greg & his company Spokes Jewelry Services Co., Ltd. were honored with a “Gold Award” from American Embassy Bangkok for “Extraordinary Dedication and Service to the Peoples of Thailand and the United States”.  This rare award sums up Greg’s contribution to our community.

Prior to establishing his company, Greg held executive positions (internationally and US domestic) where he sourced, developed, and maintained multiple global OEM manufacturing and B2C sales relationships. Currently, Greg’s day to day responsibilities include organizing, planning and delivering events for AMCHAM as SME Committee Co-Chairman (3 years), overcoming a wide variety of small business obstacles, leading a digital marketing strategy, maintaining good corporate compliance and solving the myriad challenges of operating a business in Thailand.

Greg’s leadership and dedication to mission were developed during his service in the US Marine Corps between 1993 & 2004. He is a decorated Iraq War Veteran and held a top secret security clearance. He earned a Bachelors of Science in e-Business and is a certified Diamond Graduate via the Gemological Institute of America. He's also active in the Veteran Entrepreneur community through mentoring fellow Veterans in the stages of starting and managing their own businesses. He's married with one child.

Kaveepan Eiamsakulrat is Executive Chairman of K.E. Land Co. Ltd. With an experience of over 27 years in the real estate development industry in Thailand and across the globe, he has expertise in real estate investment and infrastructure development in Thailand. Kaveepan has worked in leadership roles with multi-million US dollar corporations to bring innovation and technology in the real estate space in the Kingdom. He has served on the Board of Directors at the Housing Business Association, Thai Shopping Center Association, and is actively involved with other associations. He has also received the Trade Association Prestige Outstanding Executive Awards by Ministry of Commerce and Thai Chamber of Commerce in 2018.

Tibor Pandi is the Country Head and Citi Country Officer of Citi Thailand starting September 1, 2017. He also oversees Citi’s business activity in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

Prior to this assignment, Tibor was appointed the Country Head of Citi Romania in 2010. He was also the Cluster Head of Romania and Bulgaria before the addition of the role as Corporate Banking Head for CE5 countries (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria), plus 13 non-presence countries in CEE.

Tibor’s career with Citi started in 2001 when he joined Citi Hungary as Relationship Manager for the Non Presence Countries (NPC) region covering Corporate, FI and Public Sector client segments in 12 countries. He became Central Europe NPC Head in October 2004.

Prior to joining Citi, he worked in a number of functions with ABN AMRO Bank in Hungary and Netherlands. Tibor has over 22 years of experience in corporate and retail banking and holds a degree from the Budapest Corvinus University.

A leader with broad based knowledge of on-line start-ups, real estate development and project finance in Asia, Charles brings more than two decades of experience in capital raising, corporate finance and commercial real estate to IC Partners Limited. Established in January 2011, and based in Bangkok, Thailand, IC Partners serves as a financial advisor and investor for a couple of on-line startups as well serves as an investment and asset manager for a number of hospitality related investment joint venture investments and family offices in Southeast Asia. IC Partners works with various capital partners, venture capital funds, family offices and international hotel operators and advises investors on development planning, capital raising, deal structuring and contractual matters in the industrial and hospitality and branded residential segments.

He is also a senior member of the advisory boards at Young Happy, Thailand’s leading social media app and e-commerce business to solve the problems of the aging society seniors and Singapore based AJT Holdings Pte. Ltd. which owns the Wellity and Dr Map brands and is a wellness management platform for hospitality, senior living and standalone medical/wellness clinics in ASEAN.

His previous engagements include appointment as Chief Development Officer in 2007 for InVision Hospitality Co., Ltd. and Senior Vice President and Director of Corporate Finance for Gannon International Ltd. and Managing Director of Gannon Realty (Thailand) from 1999-2007 overseeing the company's commercial real estate and industrial development projects in both Thailand and Vietnam.

Charles earned an MBA at the Kenan‐Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina‐Chapel Hill, with honors. He currently serves as a Trustee of The Kenan Foundation Asia and is a member of the Executive Committee. Charles served as a Governor and Vice President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand from 2004 through 2007 and is currently Co-Chairman of AMCHAM’s Tourism & Hospitality Committee.

Aileen is a technology enthusiast, with almost two decades of experience in product, financial products, and go-to-market strategies. She holds a Bachelor of Accountancy from the Nanyang Technological University Singapore and is the mother of three spirited boys.

Since joining Mastercard in 2016, Aileen has been actively advocating the cashless movement in Asia Pacific. She spearheaded the development and launch of Mastercard QR based payments solution, which led to the creation and proliferation of EMV standardized QR payments in the region, while simultaneously working with regulators, and leading players in financial services and the digital space.

Aileen has been the Country Manager of Thailand and Myanmar for Mastercard since 2019. Here, she has championed the need and expansion of cashless payments and has been dedicated to accelerating the country’s digital payments landscape to support the government’s vision of creating an inclusive cashless society.

Aileen’s personal and professional diverse experience in Asia has given her firsthand insights into the need for a digitized interconnected world to ensure everyone, including SMEs, entrepreneurs, and women, is included and can gain equal access to opportunities to grow and excel. In her efforts to boost Thailand’s digital transformation, Mastercard has launched various initiatives to drive cashless payments and greater inclusiveness in Thailand.

Prior to joining Mastercard, Aileen worked for Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) in Singapore where she held key leadership positions in marketing, business and product development. Among her many accomplishments there, Aileen played an instrumental role in the development and implementation of new digital services including mobile payment solutions. In her career, Aileen has been instrumental in the strategic implementation of digital first technologies and forging strong partnerships with government agencies to establish a seamless and secure inclusive payments infrastructure that is accessible for all - cornerstone of Thailand’s 4.0 Agenda and Bank of Thailand’s Digital Payments Roadmap. Her experience has resulted in innovative and priceless changes in the payments landscape, in Thailand and Asia. Her industry knowledge, experience, and engagement has also helped in creating sustainable positive changes for Thailand’s technological and financial inclusion agenda, not just for consumers, but businesses of all sizes as well. By leveraging existing opportunities to create new ones, Aileen has also paved the way for women in technology and payments.

Gift Arpaporn Samabhandhu is the Managing Director for Johnson & Johnson Thailand & Emerging Territories, leading across Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Consumer Health sectors. Johnson & Johnson believes good health is the foundation of vibrant lives, thriving communities and forward progress. The company strives to improve access and affordability, create healthier communities, and put a healthy mind, body and environment within reach of everyone, everywhere. They are blending their heart, science and ingenuity to profoundly change the trajectory of health for humanity.

A Thai national, Gift has lived in six countries (Thailand, Canada, Vietnam, Spain, Singapore, Indonesia) with over 25 years work experience in the fields of Nutrition and Healthcare, Gift has held both commercial and regional roles in across Asia Pacific Region. Gift started her career in FMCG, working successively for LOWE Lintas, then Coca-Cola Thailand, Boots Healthcare International, Danone Groupe (both in Baby Nutrition and Dairy divisions) and Mead Johnson Nutrition Vietnam, where she also served as Chairwomen of the Nutrition Food Group sector under EUROCHAM. Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, Gift was the Head of ASEA Zone and General Manager TMS for Sanofi Consumer Healthcare, covering a span of 11 countries across Southeast Asia, Hong Kong Taiwan, and South Korea.

Gift has a Bachelor of Business Degree from the Assumption University, Thailand, and an International Executive MBA Degree from the University of Victoria, Canada. She also holds a certificate for High Performance Leadership and Orchestrating Winning Performance from IMD Lausanne, Switzerland.

On top of her passion to make a difference in peoples’ lives and in healthcare, Gift is passionate in building purposeful brands and have a strong track record in building high performing diverse teams with a sincere interest in people growth and development. During her free time, she loves to water-ski and wakeboard and believes in work-life integration.

Greg has served as Managing Director of American Axle & Manufacturing, Rayong, Thailand for 8 years.  In this time he has grown the business within Thailand to include extensive localization of all product needed to support and vertically integrate the business within Thailand.  Additionally, the business has grown from supporting one OEM to two OEMs within Thailand and exports to 4 other continents.

Prior to this, Greg was the Managing Director of AAM’s operations in Curitiba, Brazil, during which time the business expanded extensively to support local growth and international customers located in Argentina, Mexico, and Germany.  Before joining American Axle & Manufacturing 19 years ago, Greg served in the U.S. Military for 10 years, leaving the service as a Captain. He graduated from the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY with a Bachelor’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering and a MBA from Spring Arbor University.

 

George Hartel is the Chief Commercial Officer of Supara Group and GQ Apparel, a leading end-to-end menswear company and the makers of the ultimate white shirt, GQWhite™ and #1 selling face mask in Thailand.  With more than 17 years of international business development experience, George is a leader in business and brand transformation, e-commerce and digital marketing.

 

As CCO of GQ Apparel, George led the launch of GQWhite™, the ultimate white shirt, with a marketing campaign that went viral in Thailand, leading to more than 50 million ad views and 60% business growth for GQ Apparel. As a pivot for the business in response to COVID-19, George led the development and launch of the GQWhite™ Mask, a mask utilizing the same technology as GQWhite™. Both products are now #1 selling for their category in Thailand.

 

Prior to his role at Supara Group, George was the Chief E-Commerce and Business Development Officer and COO at NaRaYa, and he spent more than 15 years of his career at Newell Brands, a $16b consumer goods company with over 100 global leading brands. George led both marketing and sales distribution in Asia across B2C/FMCG and B2B product categories in his role as Asia Regional Director (Southeast Asia, China, and India) for Newell.

 

George is a graduate of Tulane University with a degree in Biomedical Engineering and an Executive MBA from Wake Forest.

David Nardone is Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, Executive Director at WHA Corporation Public Company Limited.  He is Group Executive Industrial and International, Executive Director at WHA Industrial Development Public Company Limited (Previously Hemaraj). David joined Hemaraj Land And Development Public Company Limited in 1993 and was President and Chief Executive Officer from 1998 to March 2016 until Hemaraj delisted from the Stock Exchange of Thailand.  On April 20, 2015 Hemaraj was acquired by WHA Corporation in a voluntary tender acquisition.

WHA Industrial Development Public Company Limited with assets of $1.6 billion, is Thailand’s leading developer of industrial estates, factories, utilities and power through its subsidiary WHA UP, and property solutions.  Industrial customers include 1,100 land or factory contracts, 875,000 square meters of ready built factories and logistics parks, 15 power projects of 2,540 megawatts with a 21% shareholding, and 372 automotive contracts including Ford, Mazda, GM, Suzuki, MG, and Continental.  Industrial customer investment estimate is over USD $31 billion at 9+ industrial estates of 46,434 rai, 7,429 hectares or 18,574 acres in Thailand.  A new industrial estate WHA Industrial Zone 1 Nghe An, Vietnam has Phase 1 of 500 hectares of 3,200 hectares.

From 1980 to 1993, David held senior financial and manufacturing management positions in the computer industry residing in U.S.A., Thailand, and Hong Kong.

David completed a BSBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship and a MBA at McKim D’Amore School of Business of Northeastern University in Boston, Ma. U.S.A.  His activities at Northeastern University include Alumni Leader Programs and as an Advisor for the Center for Emerging Markets (CEM) at the McKim D’Amore School of Business.  David contributes to economic forums and articles on automotive, industrial, investment and competitiveness.

He was a Governor at AMCHAM from 2001 to 2004, 2008 to 2011, 2013 to 2016 and serves in 2018 as Governor and Vice President.  He established the AMCHAM Corporate Partner program.  His involvement includes the Automotive Council of which he was a co-founder, various chamber and government advocacy issues, and as board liaison for the Business Economics, I-Day Picnic, and Trade and Investment Committees.

David resides in Bangkok with his wife Sirima and 1 of 4 children. Interests include architecture Red Sox, tennis, jazz, cigars, poker, and Italian wine.

Jeff Lehrmann is the managing director of the Asia South Business Unit, a position he assumed in April 2019. As managing director, he is responsible for upstream operations in four countries: Bangladesh, China, Myanmar and Thailand. Jeff was an executive director of Sumatra Operations in Indonesia Business Unit, the position he assumed in 2015. From 2010 to 2015, he served as president of Chevron Canada. Jeff received his bachelor’s degree in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University in 1986. He joined Chevron in 1986 as a Petroleum Engineer and has held numerous engineering and management positions with increasing responsibility within his Chevron career in the US, Canada, and Indonesia. He is married. He and his wife Cindy have 4 children, 3 daughters-in-law, and 1 grandchild.

Adisak Jangkamolkulchai is Chairman and Managing Director of both Esso (Thailand) Public Company Limited and ExxonMobil Limited. Adisak joined the AMCHAM Board of Governors since in 2020. He has served on the board of ExxonMobil Engineering Europe Ltd. He previously occupied the position of Manager-Process Department at ExxonMobil Refining & Supply Co. and Executive Director & Manager-Refinery at Esso Thailand Public Co. Ltd. Dr. Jangkamolkulchai received a doctorate from The University of Tulsa.

Mr. Viboon Kromadit earned the master’s degree in political science from Thammasat University. He has been working with Amata for over 20 years and as the head of Marketing and Sales Department of Amata City Chonburi and Amata City Rayong Industrial Estate which have the total area of more than 44,000 rai. Thereby, he is one of the key directors who has pushed Amata to be very successful.

Besides his routine work as the Director of AMATA, he also emphasizes on the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility. He works as a Chairman of AMATA Sustainable Development Committee which is officially established in 2012. The committees are responsible for the development in local community, society and environment to ensure that local people can pleasantly live with AMATA Industrial Estate.

A fluent English and Thai speaker, Nara began his career in academia in the UK and transitioned into Management Consulting and M&A focusing on healthcare transactions and eventually returned to Asia to join the pharmaceutical and medical device industries for the past 12 years, where he has had experience across multiple commercial, corporate affairs, and government affairs functions across more than ten markets.

As a recently returning member to AMCHAM after joining Baxter Healthcare as its Country Head approximately 12 months ago, his current role is to manage both people and P&L responsibilities of Baxter’s operations in Thailand. Combining his former academia background with his commercial responsibilities, he has a special passion for people and learning and development with particular interests in the evolution of people trends and the inevitable cultural barriers that exist as companies transcend geographical borders in our globalized economics. He has recently been involved as one of the panelists in AMCHAM’s Human Capital Reports to share his perspectives on a range of people topics resonating in industry and Thailand.

Nara is a Registered Chartered Director through the Institute of Directors, serves as a Board Member of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers’ Association, and is a member of the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council.

As an active supporter of community activities, Nara sponsors type 1 diabetes children and children from disadvantaged background through two charities.

Harold Vickery is Chair of the Board of Governors of Prem Tinsulanonda International School in Chiang Mai. In 2016 he retired from Bangkok law firm of Vickery & Worachai Ltd., which he founded in 1975. He received his BA from Trinity College and JD from the University of Pennsylvania. On active duty with the U.S. Air Force between 1967-1972, as Foreign Claims Commissioner for Thailand (1968-1970) and Military Judge on the Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan Circuit (1970-1972), in 1989 he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. Harold served nine terms on AMCHAM's Board of Governors and has held the following Chamber positions: Chairman of the Tax and Legislation Committee from 1978-1980, Vice-President in 1981, 1983, 1989, 1990 and 1991, Secretary in 1982, 1986, 1987 and 1992, Treasurer in 2001 and 2002, and President in 1984. Since 2014 Harold has been an Advisor to the Chamber’s Board of Governors. He has attended 26 meetings of the Asia Pacific Council of American Chambers (APCAC) and several Washington Doorknocks, and in 1990 received the Chamber's Distinguished Service Award.  In 2004 Harold was a founder of American Chamber Of Commerce In Thailand Foundation and since then has served as a director and its treasurer.

Jeff Nygaard is a proven leader with a track record of success, starting as an entry-level engineer and advancing to his current position as Head of Operations, Products, Technology, Quality and Customer Technical Engagement. Jeff is known for building teams that work across organizational boundaries to support customers and employees.

Currently, Jeff leads a global organization of over 38,000 people who speak nine languages and live on three continents. During his tenure, he has been instrumental in enabling customer success through leading products and support, improving financial performance, building high-performance teams, integrating acquired businesses, developing strategic alliances, and restructuring Seagate. Jeff reflects the senior management team's philosophy that a holistic, responsible business - one that treats people, the environment, and community with respect - enables better results.

Jeff has served twice as the President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand. He holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota, with a focus on Robotics and Control System Design. He is a certified Master Blackbelt. He lives in Thailand with his wife and two children.