COMMITTEE

Amarit (Aim), is a Thai serial entrepreneur, angel investor, advisor and father of beautiful daughter Aimée. He is currently the APAC Partner and VP of Growth Southeast Asia for INNOVERA AI and CEO of Aim Ventures (Innovation advisory and investment holding company).He is also currently the founding board member of the Thailand Business Angel Network, the largest angel investment association in Thailand. Through his Investment Holding and Innovation Advisory Company, Aim Ventures and various angel syndicates that he is a part of, he has invested in over 40 startups and funds combined, and bring with him over a decade of experience in the technology startup ecosystem as he works to support the next generation of startups and ecosystem initiatives in emerging industry verticals such as Climate tech, Health and Wellbeing, Food and Agriculture, Space Tech Web 3.0 as well as Web 2.0.

In his spare time, he is a Visiting Lecturer at Harbour.space and teaching a subject on Commercializing High Tech Entrepreneurship. His passion for the startup community and to help entrepreneurs grow has led him to angel invests in many of the top Thai startups and actively coaches over 1000+ different startups founders over the past decade. He is also a Techstars All-Stars Community Builder, Fellow of the Edmund Hillary Fellowship (EHF), Obama Leader: Asia Pacific and has been named as one of Forbes Asia 30 Under 30: Enterprise Technology, and Thailand Startup Enabler of The Year 2016.

John was born in New Zealand but always had an international focus after spending a year as an exchange student in USA and then working for 10 years with the Tourism New Zealand including 4 years marketing New Zealand in Los Angeles. He then left Aotearoa in 2000 to seek more job opportunities in the hospitality industry, moving to Australia and The Maldives.

He arrived in Thailand in 2006 where he worked as National Director of Sales for Hilton Worldwide for 7 years before moving to Raffles Cambodia as cluster Director of Sales & Marketing. After two years he returned to Bangkok with Banyan Tree Bangkok where he moved into a Hotel Manager role.

During the pandemic John together with his husband set up a business, Scoop B Do Bangkok with a shop in Saladaeng, selling ice cream and cookies which John bakes himself. The ice cream and baked goods of course are made with premium New Zealand dairy products.

In June 2022 John rejoined the hospitality industry as General Manager for the 560 room Chatrium Residence Sathon.

Michael, originally from Tauranga, New Zealand is the General Manager of Anantara Riverside Bangkok Resort. Michael's long career in hospitality has seen him work across the USA, Middle East and Asia, starting with Hyatt in La Jolla, San Diego, USA. In 2009, Michael moved to the Middle East with Grand Hyatt Doha in Qatar, followed by a 5 year tenure at the Park Hyatt Dubai. Upon relocating to South East Asia in 2016, Michael led the team at the storied Caravelle Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He then joined Minor Hotels and Resorts as General Manager at FCC Angkor by Avani in Siem Reap, Cambodia before being relocated to Bangkok in Early 2023. Michael holds a bachelor's degree in International Hotel Management from the International College of Hotel Management (ICHM) in Adelaide, Australia.

Tane is a New Zealand and British national who graduated from Victoria University of Wellington with a Bachelors of Commerce and Administration (Info Systems and E-Commerce majors) in New Zealand. Expertise in running technical operations, and engineering for public and private clouds.  He also completed his MBA at the Open University.  He has worked in, Wellington NZ, London UK and now in Bangkok since 2016, currently working as an Engineering Manager at e-commerce company Agoda.

Charupol (Ake) moved to New Zealand when he was 15 years old. Ake was educated at Scots College in Wellington, and then the University of Otago where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a Master of Business in Information Science. He had worked in Dunedin, Wellington in an IT industry and now returned to Bangkok. Having spent most of his time in New Zealand for more than 10 years, Ake is a New Zealand’s best advocate. He had accustomed New Zealand culture and experienced the Kiwi way of thinking. He currently involves in a real estate business in Bangkok. He also runs a New Zealand education agent - Koru New Zealand.

Sarakit has extensive experience and contacts in the food service, food retail, food manufacturing and agricultural sectors in Thailand.  He has assisted businesses wishing to do business in Thai and regional markets for nearly forty years. 

Sarakit also worked with a major international buying agent in Hong Kong, managing a team of merchandise managers, quality assurance managers and quality control supervisors for two years. He has also worked in the building and construction sector for a couple of years.

His formal training was in electrical/computer engineering, with additional certifications including TQM, Kaisen, human resource management, business administration, relationship marketing and management.

Sarakit has travelled extensively to more than forty countries around the world, and has lived and worked in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and the United States.

Graduated Bachelor of Laws from Thammasat University. Joined Deloitte Thailand in Legal Department as a senior lawyer before found Premier Thai Lawyers since 2006, the high quality service in the fields of Law in Thailand.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Law from Thammasat University in 2015. Suthawan started her career as an Intellectual Property Communication Administrator at Baker & McKenzie Co., Ltd. She also was selected as a participant at the TechCamp Thailand 2017 at Dusit Thani Hotel, Bangkok. 

During her career development period, Suthawan joined an NGO, an in-house company, and several law firms in Bangkok. She was promoted to a Senior Associate (Senior Lawyer) at the age of 26 years old in the corporate & commercial laws department at Juslaws & Consult Co., Ltd. Then, she resigned to work as a freelance lawyer before setting up her own law firm, Candiduck Co., Ltd. in February 2021 at the age of 28 years old.

Currently, Suthawan is still running and developing her own firm, running some workshops with her business partners, studying for her online MBA, and is a legal consultant for her clients throughout Thailand and abroad. Suthawan wishes that she can bring new opportunities, people, or perspectives to the NZTCC to better and better even though she didn’t have some experience in New Zealand.

Daniel (Dan) Smith is currently a General Manager at dusitD2 Samyan. On this role, with his more than 20 year’s hospitality experience, his passion for excellence and enthusiasm towards luxury hospitality industry, Dan will lead the prestigious team of the resort to future success.

Born in New Zealand, Dan expanded his career journey and developed a strong Food and Beverage expertise into different countries from Europe to Asia. In 2009, he was posted in the Maldives and moved to Asia in 2011 where he joined Minor Hotels as Director of Food and Beverage for Anantara Resort and Spa Sanya, China. After a six-month task force mission in Vietnam for the rebranding of Anantara Hoi An and Avani Quy Nhon, Dan was appointed as Executive Assistant Manager for Anantara Hua Hin, Thailand. He joined Accor in 2016 as Resident Manager for Novotel Yangon Max in Myanmar and appointed as General Manager of Premier Village Phu Quoc Resort, the three prestigious international awards in 2018 before Reopening the Movenpick BDMS Wellness Resort Bangkok in September 2022.

Aside from being well-travelled, Dan loves architecture, cooking, running and enjoy living a healthy lifestyle.

Nathan took up his role as First Secretary at the New Zealand Embassy in Bangkok in February 2023. Before starting this posting, he was based in Wellington working on legal and development issues at MFAT’s head office. Prior to joining the foreign service, Nathan worked as an environmental lawyer. He grew up in Nelson, New Zealand and studied at the University of Canterbury and the National University of Singapore.

Jane is NZTE’s Country Manager - Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, based in Bangkok.

Jane joined NZTE in 2016 as a business development manager for F&B portfolio. Prior to NZTE, Jane’s career has been dedicated to the international business development. Beginning with the United States Potato Board, Thailand representative office, Jane worked to educate and increase consumption of US potatoes in across multiple channels. Later Jane joined Unilever’s South East Asia regional office, based in Singapore, as a Regional Assistant Brand Manager.

 As part of Jane’s education and career development, she has lived and worked in Europe, Asia and the USA. It’s her passion to learn and gain insights from different cultures.. 

Jane graduated with a first class honours in Liberal Arts (British and American studies) from Thammasat University and went on to earn a Master Degree in European Business from École supérieure de commerce de Paris (ESCP Europe) and an Executive MBA from Thailand’s SASIN School of Management in Bangkok.

Darren is a Chartered Professional Engineer in New Zealand and a Senior Associate Director at Beca – one of Asia Pacific’s largest independent engineering, design, and advisory consultancies.  

Originally from Wanganui, New Zealand, he has a NZ Diploma of Engineering and graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering BE (Civil) with Honours from the University of Canterbury. After working in both Christchurch and Auckland, Darren transferred to Jakarta where he worked for five transformative years before moving to Bangkok in 2022. Using his background in structural engineering, he now works across a diverse range of disciplines and markets.