The 25th ASPA Annual Conference JEJU / 제25회 ASPA 연례회의 제주

Speakers

Ms. Watcharin Witthayaweerasak

General Manager, Thai-BISPA

Biography Session Topic

QUALIFICATION SUMMARY
□ 15 years of extensive experience in technology and innovation management corridor: 2 years as an innovation policy researcher strategically initiating new schemes of innovation infrastructure and financing entrepreneurship, 5 years as a technological and innovative project manager at ITAP, 5 years as the general manager of the self-sustainable organization actively engaging in the innovation-driven enterprises, along with 1 year as the Chief Innovation Officer strategically managing company’s product innovation portfolio and alliances

g judge of organizational and national innovation awards, member of the subcommittee More than a decade of organizational and national innovation ecosystem building experiences: 2 years of bridging local industry in the Southern Part of Thailand with viable technologies from Academia, 10 years of promoting technology commercialization through the network of 40 innovation centers nationwide and connecting the ecosystem internationally □ 10 years in innovation promotion role includin to provide innovation fund for new innovative entrepreneurs, as well as business strategy advisor for multiple innovation-driven enterprises and international award winners

□ 17 years of managerial position: 3 years as an assistant manager at the local company to develop and operate supply chain management system, 2 years serving ITAP alliances as an assistant network manager, 9 years as a general manager at a non-profit organization while promoting good teamwork to share a common vision, 2 years as Board Member of Innovation- Driven Companies, and 1 year as Chief Innovation Officer of Smart ID Group, 2 years as Strategic Innovation Alliance Advisor to Chairman at CP All Group

□ Proactive team motivator who leads colleagues to superior levels of achievement, yielding continually rising levels of growth as well as team spirit □ Excellent leadership, oral/written communication, interpersonal, intuitive, innovative, and analytical skills

MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS
□ Launching and managing an innovative product line for the supervisee company through the open innovation concept which contributed to total sales at 30 million THB within 8 months after ideation

□ Proactively driving the non-profit organization towards sustainability with the revenue and margin growth of more than 15% annually and contributed to the development of Thailand’s Innovation Ecosystem

□ Supervising innovative strategies and governing investment portfolio of the organization
□ Introducing and executing alliance strategies that generates 20% growth of total iTAP productivity especially in the southern part of Thailand
□ Successfully initiating and managing over 40 projects enabling more than 35 million baht to be invested for technology development within 3 years of experience in the project management arena
□ Establishing strong connections with more than 500 clients and academia nationwide as well as extensive network of around 150 innovation centers globally
□ Providing concrete strategic advice on new S-curve business for the corporate to ensure the long-term sustainable growth by extending the network of collaboration across the innovation landscape
□ Productively involving with multiple national agenda and policy formulation projects such as the development of venture capitalism and crowdfunding mechanism in Thailand, the management of emerging issues on ICT, the conceptual framework of science park, the board of knowledge investment initiative and so on

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Strategic Innovation Alliance Advisor, January 2021 to Present
- CP ALL Plc, Bangkok, Thailand

General Manager, August 2011 to Present
- Thai Business Incubators and Science Parks Association (Thai-BISPA), Bangkok, Thailand
Chief Innovation Officer (CIO), January 2020 to December 2020
- Smart ID Group, Bangkok, Thailand
Thai Foundation Quality System Auditor, August 2010 to September 2013
- Industrial Technology Assistance Program (iTAP), Technology Management Center (TMC), National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), Ministry of Science and Technology, Bangkok, Thailand
Industrial Technology Advisor, August 2008 to September 2013
- Industrial Technology Assistance Program (iTAP), National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), Ministry of Science and Technology, Bangkok, Thailand
Assistant Network Manager, February 2010 to May 2011
- Industrial Technology Assistance Program (iTAP), Faculty of Engineering, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla, Thailand

EDUCATION
□ Master of Science degree in Engineering and Technology Management (first-class honors), Portland State University, Oregon, United States of America
□ Bachelor of Engineering degree in Industrial Engineering (first-class honors), Prince of Songkhla University, Thailand

Building post-pandemic resilience through technological innovation

The COVID-19 pandemic crisis started off with the global health issues; however, it brought in a unique opportunity to re-evaluate many aspects of modern economy and society towards better sustainability.

The coronavirus outbreak has underscored the pressing need to prioritize STI in terms of policymaking, resource allocation and international cooperation. As we are the innovation intermediaries who play a crucial role in the national innovation ecosystem, Science and Technology Parks must ensure that the development benefits of STI translate directly into the daily lives of people all over the country and can be valuable to the world.

With crisis, comes opportunity! From our eyes, we could use the crisis as an opportunity to revive economic growth in the free world, particularly by investing in new technologies that will shape the global economy in the coming decades. Priority areas for technology development and investment include artificial intelligence, internet of things, big data, robotics, advanced manufacturing, quantum computing, life science, biotechnology, and even social technologies which enable people to communicate, learn, work, and live with more efficient way of human-to-human interaction. These technologies will be central to advanced economies in the near future, reshaping and accelerating innovation and production, transforming society, and pushing the frontiers of human knowledge.

Nevertheless, the economic downturn places smaller technology firms at risk of collapse, threatening a base of innovation that also is critical to national prosperity. Science and Technology Parks make sure that these firms have access to adequate resources to withstand the economic slump and they are able to pivot themselves to overcome the challenges.

For the past decades, Thai Government has issued many national policies to move our country toward knowledge-based and industry-based economy. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen our technology capacities among Thai enterprises, especially technology-based business which is also a current global trend. Science and Technology Parks are one of the main and effective mechanisms to drive the country toward such knowledge-based economy. They could help advance technological breakthroughs through several support schemes ranging from infrastructure, financial services, human capital development, and technology transfer.

It is important to set up the necessary infrastructure to make telemedicine, virtual learning, and remote work commonplace in the post-pandemic world. For instance, office space is being rearranged to promote social isolation. Particularly in light of the fact that cities are viral hotspots, urbanization is being rethought. Emerging technologies should be included into a reinvented and digitally driven post-pandemic economy as they become the new drivers of economic growth. Finally, the security of a strong post-pandemic economy will depend on public-private partnerships. Reinventing the private corporation and how it interacts with shareholders and the general public is necessary to reestablish confidence in capitalism. Public-private partnerships can combine the vitality of the private sector with the spending capacity of the government as well as international cooperation towards a sustainable and resilient recovery from the pandemic.

Speakers