Supachai Panitchpakdi ( th, ศุภชัย พานิชภักดิ์, , ; born 30 May 1946 in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

) is a Thai politician and professor. He was Secretary-General of the

UN Conference on Trade and Development The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is an intergovernmental organization within the United Nations Secretariat that promotes the interests of developing countries in world trade. It was established in 1964 by the ...

(UNCTAD) from 1 September 2005 to 31 August 2013. Prior to this, he was the Director-General of the

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and ...

(WTO) from 1 September 2002 to 1 September 2005. He was succeeded by

Pascal Lamy Pascal Lamy (born 8 April 1947) is a French political consultant and businessman. He was the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) from 1 September 2005 to 1 September 2013 for 8 years. In April 2009, WTO members reappointed La ...

Education

Supachai studied in primary and secondary education at

Saint Gabriel's College Saint Gabriel's College ( th, โรงเรียนเซนต์คาเบรียล) is a private Catholic all-boys school in Bangkok, Thailand. The school was founded by the Brothers of Saint Gabriel in 1920. The school educates stu ...

and

Triam Udom Suksa School Triam Udom Suksa School ( th, โรงเรียนเตรียมอุดมศึกษา, ; lit.'university-preparatory school') is a state school in central Bangkok, Thailand. It admits upper-secondary students (''mathayom'' 4–6, eq ...

. Then he received his

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in economics, development planning, and his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...

in economic planning and development at the Netherlands School of Economics (now known as

Erasmus University Erasmus University Rotterdam (abbreviated as ''EUR'', nl, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam ) is a public research university located in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The university is named after Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, a 15th-century humani ...

) in Rotterdam. In 1973, he completed his doctoral dissertation under supervision of Professor

Jan Tinbergen Jan Tinbergen (; ; 12 April 19039 June 1994) was a Dutch economist who was awarded the first Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1969, which he shared with Ragnar Frisch for having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis o ...

, the first Nobel laureate in economics. In the same year, he went to

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

as a visiting fellow to conduct research on development models.

Political careers

In 1986 Supachai Panitchpakdi was appointed as Thailand's Deputy Minister of Finance, but when parliament was dissolved in 1988 he left politics and became president of

Thai Military Bank TMBThanachart Bank (TTB) ( th, ธนาคารทหารไทยธนชาต จำกัด (มหาชน); ) is a Thai transactional bank based in Bangkok. It has been listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) since 23 Decemb ...

. In 1992 he returned to politics and became deputy prime minister until 1995, responsible for trade and economics. During the

Asian financial crisis The Asian financial crisis was a period of financial crisis that gripped much of East Asia and Southeast Asia beginning in July 1997 and raised fears of a worldwide economic meltdown due to financial contagion. However, the recovery in 1998– ...

in November 1997 he returned to be deputy prime minister and also became minister of commerce.

World Trade Organization

On 22 July 1999 he was elected to become Director-General of the

, sharing the post with Mike Moore when a decision could not be reached. Taking the second half of the six-year term, he entered office on 1 September 2002.

UNCTAD

In March 2005 he was appointed Secretary-General of the

(UNCTAD) following his term at the WTO, a post he took up in late-2005. He was appointed for a second four-year term in September 2009. Keen to reform and revitalise the organisation, he has established a Panel of Eminent Persons to oversee the start of reform of UNCTAD.

Selected works

He published numerous books, including ''Educational Growth in Developing Countries'' (1974), ''Globalization and Trade in the New Millennium'' (2001) and ''China and the WTO: Changing China, Changing World Trade'' (2002, co-authored with

Mark Clifford Mark Clifford is a British musician and producer known primarily for his involvement with his band Seefeel. He has been involved in a number of solo and collaborative projects which have resulted in a wide range of material released on many d ...

References

External links