Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) executive vice president Veerathai Santiprabhob is a young executive whose experience in global economics is helping him in the microeconomic world of Thai banking and small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Despite his mere 37 years, Veerathai was selected as one of 19 members of an advisory council on economics by the Council for Democratic Reform, which seized control of the country in the September 19 coup and has since been renamed the Council for National Security.

However, the real job of the son of former Senator Pratin Santiprabhob is running SCB's banking operations and overseeing small- and medium-sized enterprises in the country's third-largest bank. In this capacity, he finds great advantage in having spent several years working in the field of macroeconomics.

After gaining a master's degree in economics and a doctoral degree from Harvard University in 1994, he joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as an economist and found himself dealing with the problems of global financial systems.

His job involved monetary and exchange-rate policies, currency-board arrangements, central banking, payment systems and financial-sector restructuring in several countries. It gave him invaluable experience in both economics and diplomacy.

He had to learn the economic problems of each country and face the challenges of finding solutions. He remembers Liberia, in particular. After a civil war lasting eight years, the IMF was called in to reform the country's foreign-exchange regime.

"Liberia then had only one banknote, for five Liberian dollars. The prices of goods had to be fixed in multiples of five. We [the IMF] helped them to rebuild their financial and currency systems," he said.

His work at the IMF led him to deal with many distinguished people, including finance ministers and central-bank governors, so he needed the skills of a diplomat.

Veerathai returned to Thailand in 1998 to become co-director of the Policy Research Institute at the Finance Ministry's Fiscal Policy Office. The research institute was created in the wake of the 1997 financial crisis.

"Despite a lot of problems, I was happy to be helping my country. The most difficult aspect was the things we didn't know. Nobody knew the real problem or the situation. There were plenty of rumours, because the country's database system was terrible at that time.

"Political factors were also a core obstruction to a solution for the crisis. We had a coalition government, so we couldn't tackle problems like we should have," he said.

South Korea faced financial problems similar to those in Thailand, so it issued 50 to 60 laws within a week. It was thus able to handle its problems earlier than Thailand.

When the country's economy improved, Veerathai's contract with the Finance Ministry ended, and for the first time he began working for a private company.

He joined SCB in 2000 when the country's oldest commercial bank was creating a reform programme to recover its business after the financial crisis. Veerathai found a new challenge in taking part in the reform planning.

"One of my inspirations to join Siam Commercial Bank was a recommendation from Khun Tarrin [Nimmanahaeminda, former finance minister and former chief executive of SCB]. I respected his work when I had the chance to work with him at the Finance Ministry," he said.

Veerathai has now been working for SCB for six years. He has found the experience gained at the international, national and private-company levels has given him a broad perspective.

At the IMF, he gained a broad understanding of exposure to global economic influences; he learned of Thailand's macroeconomic and official processes at the Finance Ministry, and Siam Commercial Bank has focused his attention on microeconomics, as well as the demands of the private sector.

Veerathai does not believe in setting special career goals, because concentrating on the future makes him unhappy working today. However, he loves travelling, and he dreams of owning a tour-guide agency when he retires.

Somruedi Banchongduang

The Nation