- Published: 14/09/2012 at 03:28 PM
- Writer: Amornrat Mahitthirook
THAI executive vice-president Chokchai Panyayong confirmed the appointment after the board meeting and said Mr Sorajak was expected to take up his new position in October.The next step is to negotiate contract terms and other details including salary with Mr Sorajak . The process is expected to take about two weeks. Mr Sorajak's performance will be assessed every six months while he is in office.
The selection came as no surprise as Mr Sorajak was the sole candidate for the top job at the national carrier. He was picked by a selection committee led by Areepong Bhoocha-oom, theTHAI vice-chairman and permanent secretary for the Finance Ministry, the airline's biggest shareholder.Mr Sorajak has been the chairman of the majority state-owned broadcaster MCOT Plc since December last year.The holder of a PhD in international law from the London School of Economics, Mr Sorajak once worked as a translator and reporter for the BBC's Thai-language service. On returning to Thailand he worked at the Foreign Ministry before starting to teach law, eventually becoming dean of law at Assumption University.In 1999 he was named director-general of the Mass Communication Organisation of Thailand, the operator of TV Channel 9, when it was still a 100% government-owned enterprise.He was succeeded by Mingkwan Saengsuwan, who led the semi-privatisation and market listing of MCOT and later became a prominent figure in the Thai Rak Thai Party under Thaksin Shinawatra,Mr Sorajak also held advisory posts in the Thaksin administration, as a vice-minister of foreign affairs and later as a vice-minister in the Prime Minister's Office.He has also held directorships at Seamico Securities, M Pictures Entertainment, and is an independent director of Electricity Generating Plc.In another development on Friday, the THAI board agreed to a demand for an end to opened-ended contracts for temporary staff.Mr Chokchai said the age limit for air crews working under contracts would be set at 45 years and their contracts could be extended on a yearly basis. The age limit for other contracted workers including ground staff would be set at 60, he added.The new contracts will take effect after the carrier comes up with the new criteria to assess their performance in their respective jobs.About 100 contracted staff rallied at the THAI head office on Friday calling for the end of open-ended contracts to improve job security, because their contracts can be eliminated at short notice.THAI has 1,600 aircrew members who work on the contract. Another 800 contracted officials work as ground staff and other duties.Mr Piyasvasti, whose wife Anik is a board member and party-list MP of the opposition Democrat Party, was axed as Thai Airways' president and CEO in June, and said he believed that his removal was politically motivated. He later filed a lawsuit, demanding that THAI renew his employment contract until the expiry date and to pay him compensation for the entire employment period remaining in the contract, which expires on July 11 next year.
Share your thoughts
- Discussion 1 : 15/09/2012 at 03:23 PM
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Mr Piyasvasti actually turn THAI airways around and made a profit in decades. He was backed by majority of the staff at THAI and the Union, now that says a lot about his management. Normally staff can't wait to get rid of an ignorant and useless corporate CEO.
Whats flawed with how government appoints officials is that they don't require any qualification. Just look at Ministers who have no experience in the field they are governing, a PM who got elected when she had absolutely ZERO experience.
- Discussion 2 : 15/09/2012 at 12:35 PM
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A Chinese saying: ”Changed the soup but didn’t change the ingredients”. In order to drastically improve Thai Airway’s performance it would be best to select somebody who can think “out of the box” instead of recruiting the people within their own circle of friends; head-hunt someone, with proven track records, from outside the country but has no connections with the people who recruited them. No important post takes 6 months to take effect because he/she will need sometime to replace some “dead woods’ packed in the organization so that their own men/women can do a better job seeing through its fruition.
- Discussion 3 : 14/09/2012 at 08:44 PM
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Re: Discussion 2
Absolutely no qualifications apart from being politically connected.
TG goes from one disaster to another. The shareholders (exc for the Government) must be quite dismayed.
- Discussion 4 : 14/09/2012 at 08:32 PM
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I see nothing in his resume that qualifies him to run an international airlines at all.
- Discussion 5 : 14/09/2012 at 08:14 PM
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Good luck to the new president. Refreshing to see a non police or military general taking an important post.
I know why the last president lost his job, he helped drag Thai airways from a once quality and respected airline to an overpriced antiquated carrier. Clueless.
- Discussion 6 : 14/09/2012 at 06:53 PM
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Excellent choice, well educated academic with a solid back ground from both industry and from university teaching....hopefully he can help bring Thai back on the right track, as it is now they are under great pressure from state sponsored airlines like Qatar and Emirates, just to mention the largest two...so unconventional thinking and approaches may be required to make Thai an attractive airline again...as it used to be...in the nineties.
- Discussion 7 : 14/09/2012 at 05:41 PM
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DS #1 "Plus we are not clear why the last president lost his job"
The official excuse for sacking him was that he was a 'poor communicator'. The real reason was because his wife is a party list Democrat MP.
Now with the new boss the PT MPs will probably be able to fly free, first class, to Dubai on THAI.
- Discussion 8 : 14/09/2012 at 05:33 PM
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RE: D1 he lost his job because Directors fired him, the company was bleeding money. Having said that there is little doubt that politics did not play a part...Do you think his hiring might have been politically motivated as well? Of course it was.
What is amazing to me is that the airline has offered progressively worse service in recent years and is constantly the highest priced carrier serving the country. This is despite the fact that they have lower labor costs than most competitors as well as government backed loans and still always have a very very bad financial results for the share holders. In my opinion the government should get out of the airline business all together and privatize it. This government enterprise like the rest of them are cesspools of corruption. They all should be privatized.
- Discussion 9 : 14/09/2012 at 05:12 PM
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His qualification to run an international airline? Served as vice minister to Foreign Minister Surakiat Sathirathai (Thaksin administration).
- Discussion 10 : 14/09/2012 at 04:24 PM
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So we are expected to believe this man has accepted the post but dose not know his contract regarding salary. Oh yes!!Pull the other one has got bells on it jobs for the boys.Plus we are not clear why the last president lost his job.I wonder if the new man will get to write his own job description.
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