KPN Lifestyle CEO fulfilling his dream

KPN Lifestyle's CEO Korn Narongdej

He said there were many factors affecting the development of the market in Thailand. The competition has increased dramatically and the standard of living of the Thai people has also substantially improved.

"In the case of residential projects, I get completely involved in the development process, from concept creation to finding a location, pur¬chasing land, identifying require¬ment of construction materials and interior designing," Korn said.

He said the company plans to focus on highend residential projects, which target APlus customers.

"The global economic downturn has not had a major impact on lux¬ury projects although it has significantly affected the purchasing power of the medium and lowerincome groups," Korn said.

Korn completed his highschool education at the Sathit Pathumwan School in Bangkok. He acquired a bachelor's degree in business administration with a specialisation in finance from the Regent's College in London in 1998. He then returned to Bangkok and worked at Merrill Lynch, a leading financial management and advisory company, for about two years.

"At Merrill Linch, I realised that a career in finance is not for me," Korn said. He then decided to enhance his educational qualifications in a way that would benefit the family's business in the future.

Korn stayed another six months in England to study interior design. It was then that he hit upon what he really wanted to do in his career and started KPN Lifestyle, a prop¬erty unit of the KPN Group.

"Personally, I enjoy doing something new every day and real estate enables me to fulfil this need. Each realestate project involves creat¬ing something from scratch," he said.

This year, Korn launched his second project, a 35unit condomini¬um called Vincente, worth Bt300 million, on Sukhumvit Road Soi 49. The fully furnished condominium designed in Art Deco style began presales in February and 65 per cent of its space has been already sold. The units are priced betwen Bt7 million and Bt12 million.