Pichai Chuensuksawadi
After 34 years in journalism – 22 years as an editor – Pichai stood down as Editor-in-Chief of Post Publishing and Editor of the Bangkok Post, Thailand’s leading English-language daily and oldest Thai newspaper, in September 2016.
Before starting his professional career in Bangkok, Pichai spent 10 years (1970-1979) in Australia – four years in a boarding school and six years in two universities. He joined Post in 1980 as a proof reader, working his way up the ranks as a copy and layout editor of the Bangkok World (afternoon tabloid) before moving to the Bangkok Post assuming various positions such as rewriter, feature writer, foreign affairs reporter, Opinion-Editorial sub-editor, Editor of Perspectives before finally becoming News Editor in 1992.
He left journalism briefly to work as special assistant to the Secretary-General of ASEAN in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1993-1994. He returned to Thailand to become Editor of the Bangkok Post for the first time between 1994-2002. In 2002, Pichai was made Editor-in-Chief of Post Publishing after he initiated, planned and helped launch Post Today, the company’s Thai-language business daily. As Editor-in-Chief his primary role was to assist the company’s continued editorial diversification and initiatives.
In May 2010, he also assumed the position of managing director of Post News – a Post affiliate company which co-produced 8 hours of Thai-language television news each day on the government-owned National Broadcasting Services of Thailand or Channel 11. He was also co-anchor on Bangkok Post Morning Focus – a daily news-analysis-commentary programme in English on Channel 11. The programme was discontinued in February 2012.
In October 2011, Post launched its third newspaper called M2F (Monday to Friday) – a free tabloid (Thai language) distributed free at hundreds of spots to in inner Bangkok along the BTS and subway routes. In January 2014, Pichai returned as Editor of the Bangkok Post overseeing its day-to-day news coverage, analysis and commentaries.
Prior to his retirement from Post, Pichai was Chairman of the Bangkok Post Foundation, the Phud Hong Foundation and Post Publishing’s Provident Fund Committee. Internationally, he was a Board and Executive Committee Member of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). He was also the chairman of WAN-IFRA’s Asia Pacific Committee for over a decade.
WAN-IFRA is the global organisation of the world’s press. It derives its authority from its global network of 3,000 news publishing companies and technology entrepreneurs, and its legitimacy from its 80-member publisher associations representing 18,000 publications in 120 countries. Its mission is to defend and promote press freedom, clear the way to innovation and help independent news publishing companies to succeed in their transformation process, increase their business and perform their crucial role in open societies.
Pichai was selected as Australian Alumni of the Year 2016 by the Australian-Thai Chamber of Commerce and the Australian Embassy. He now works as an independent media consultant. He was involved in the formulation and launch of the ASEAN Media Forum on 4 August 2017 in Manila, Philippines prior to the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting. He is also the Editorial Advisor to Frontier Myanmar, an English-language news weekly magazine in Yangon, Myanmar. He is also a founding committee member of the Foundation for Public Policy and Good Governance which was launched in January 2019.
