Dr. Thitinan Pongsudhirak

 

He has provided stand-alone public lectures and private briefings on these topics to leading financial institutions, multinational corporations, international chambers of commerce, and diplomatic missions, and has lectured widely at local and international universities, military colleges, and international organisations. Dr Thitinan has provided many individual consultations to investors on both portfolio and direct investments in the context of Thai politics and macro-economy with coverage of ASEAN markets, especially with reference to Mainland Southeast Asia. Apart from his occasional speaking engagements, Thitinan is Director of the Institute of Security and International Studies (ISIS) and Associate Professor of International Political Economy at the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University. He has authored a host of articles, books, book chapters, and more than 500 op-eds in news outlets such as The Bangkok Post, The Straits Times, New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Project Syndicate, Financial Times, and his comments and views are frequently quoted in international and local media. Thitinan has worked for The BBC World Service, The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Independent Economic Analysis (IDEA), and Gerson Lehrman Group. He assisted Thai companies, such as Airports of Thailand and Pruksa Real Estate, when they undertook road shows during their IPOs.

 

From a multicultural and bilingual background, Thitinan was born and raised in Thailand through primary school, and completed high school and university in California. His postgraduate work in international economics and international relations at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) later led to his PhD at the London School of Economics where his work on the political economy of the 1997 Thai economic crisis was awarded the United Kingdom’s Best Dissertation Prize. He has held visiting positions at Victoria University in New Zealand, Yangon University, Johns Hopkins SAIS, and Stanford University. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Contemporary Southeast Asia, South East Asia Research, Asian Politics & Policy, and Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs. In June 2015, he received an award for excellence in opinion writing from the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA). He is part of the What is the “new Asia”? panel.