Suphachai Chearavanont Wins CEO of the Year 2025, Reinforcing a Vision to Position Thailand as ASEAN's Digital Hub

This award honours leaders who demonstrate true CEO qualities by successfully guiding their organisations and countries through challenges toward a bright future. The CEO Awards 2025 ceremony was held at the Napalai Room, Dusit Thani Hotel in Bangkok, with many top executives from leading organisations in attendance.

Suphachai Chearavanont, the CEO of the Year 2025, shared his perspective on leadership, which he believes is crucial in managing organisations in an era of rapid global change. He emphasised that, in addition to vision and commitment, a CEO must also maintain calm in times of crisis and have the courage to make decisions to lead an organisation through difficult situations.

Suphachai reflected on the beginning of his own journey as a CEO, which came after the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, a period of immense challenges for Thailand. The lessons from that crisis, and later the dot-com bubble burst, allowed the organisation to emerge “stronger than before” and poised for further growth. He explained that such volatility serves as a test that strengthens both leaders and organisations if they maintain composure and make bold decisions.

Suphachai also noted that today's leaders face multi-layered crises and challenges, including 1) Digital Disruption: rapid technological changes, 2) Geopolitics: global political pressure and severe conflicts, and 3) Climate Change: extreme weather patterns, particularly the goal of limiting global temperatures to 1.5°C, which will accelerate and impact all sectors inevitably.

However, Suphachai stressed that Thailand still has high potential as a “strategic hub for the region” and has the opportunity to link the ASEAN economy while adapting to the digital era to build a larger and more robust economy.

Suphachai proposed a vision to drive Thailand toward becoming “ASEAN’s Digital and Innovation Hub” to tackle global challenges and enhance the country’s competitive capability. He outlined four key strategies for pushing the country forward:

1. Regional Hub: Position Thailand as a centre for logistics, tourism, and soft power, and propose an economic link between Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore to combine GDP power towards a “trillion-dollar” level in the region.
2. Digital Transformation: Accelerate the shift towards a digital economy, reduce cash use, and bring the informal economy into the formal sector, which will boost tax revenue, expand GDP, and significantly enhance the country’s systemic efficiency.
3. Talent Hub: Attract skilled professionals and knowledge workers from around the world to work in Thailand, aiming for 10% of the population, or about 7 million people, to support demographic changes and increase future taxpayers.
4. Innovation & Startup Ecosystem: Make Thailand a hub for data centres and innovation by linking hyper-scalers with Thai universities to create an ecosystem that enables continuous and practical innovation.

At the CEO Awards stage, Suphachai also discussed the “New Entrepreneur Model,” proposing that the government support over 2 million university students as startups. He believes this approach could lead to the creation of up to 200,000 startups. Even if only 1% succeed and become unicorns, it would drive the country’s GDP growth significantly, while also shifting the mindset of Thai youth to become entrepreneurs ready to enter all industries in the future.

Regarding CP Group’s business direction, Suphachai emphasised the company’s push towards becoming a Tech-Driven Company, using technology and innovation as the driving forces for growth. This also includes upgrading infrastructure and creating a digital ecosystem conducive to the long-term development of Thailand’s economy.

Suphachai concluded by encouraging the CEOs and executives attending the CEO Awards, stating, “Thailand definitely has a bright future,” and urged everyone to work together to lead Thailand towards stability and sustainability in the long term.

The CEO Awards 2025 included five categories:

1. Sustainability CEO Award 2025: Thapana Sirivadhanabhakdi, CEO of Thai Beverage Plc.
2. Innovative CEO Award 2025: Payong Srivanich, CEO of Krung Thai Bank Plc.
3. Young CEO Award 2025: Sinon Vongkusolkit, CEO of Banpu Plc.
4. Influential Brand CEO Award 2025: Jirayut Srupsrisopa, Founder and CEO of Bitkub Capital Group Holdings Co., Ltd.
5. And finally, CEO of the Year 2025: Suphachai Chearavanont, CEO of Charoen Pokphand Group.