TEI: Please share your background and your work experience in the semiconductor industry.

I graduated my bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University. That was the first batch of the Automotive Engineering Department. After my graduation, I pursued my master's and doctoral degrees in Hamburg, Germany in Automotive Electronics, which was truly a dream-come-true experience for me. It was fortunate of me that the Head Professor at the laboratory where I used to work was the former Head of Research & Development at Infineon; the world's first or second largest semiconductor company that specializes in automotive electronics. So that has earned me the opportunity to work with this professor.

When I was granted the scholarship for my doctoral degree, I had a chance to work and live in Germany for 8-9 years; from college years to my career as a researcher. After my doctoral degree graduation, I did my post-doctoral degree in electronic sensors, which is in the semiconductor sensor family. My role has been orientated towards design and development. There are certain products that I designed and developed 10-15 years ago that have just been launched as end products today. This is something that is quite exciting.

After completing my post-doctoral degree, I joined with Philips Semiconductor, or what is known as NXP Semiconductor today. Philips is a home electrical appliance manufacturer. I worked in the semiconductor division that manufactured chips for Philips and also supplied to other companies. I started my career at the headquarters, in the RFID business unit, so my experience has been in RFID security and identification-related products since 2006. My roles were both designer and project manager, where I was the only Thai person and being able to speak German was necessary to work with customers. I got to capitalize my technical knowledge and project management skills, to understand the flow of business operations by coordinating directly with customers. I think my experience during those 4-5 years in this business have earned me the understanding of the flows and processes of the RFID business significantly.

In 2011, Philips Semiconductor sent me back to Thailand to set up a Research & Development center, as they believed that my understanding in the business and the technology would be a helpful contribution, as the focus in Thailand's operations was solely based on production back then. About half a year after coming back, I got promoted to be a Senior Manager, responsible for a number of areas; business flow, project management, and internal audit. I also had an opportunity to work at NXP Semiconductor in the Philippines for almost 2 years. I spent most of my time firefighting business issues and the collapsing R&D operations due to the change in the management team. The R&D Department had always depended upon expatriates all along and so they needed someone to help set up the operations and solve the problems.

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