The Thammasat University Library has recently received and catalogued a collection of books generously donated in memory of Mr. Pakpoom Vallisuta by his wife, Mrs. Sumitra Vallisuta.
The books range in subject matter from the history of science to business and literature and should be useful for TU students interested in intellectual history, psychology, physics, and many related subjects.
Mr. Pakpoom earned an undergraduate degree in computer engineering and a master of business administration (MBA) from Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, the United States of America.
He had a special interest in the history of physics, and a number of the donated books offer insights into the creative personalities of scientists such as Albert Einstein, Paul Dirac, Richard Feynman, Robert A. Millikan, and Julian Schwinger.
There are also authoritative books by and about the mathematician Henri Poincaré, the polymath Leonardo da Vinci, and the paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, among others.
Getting a better understanding on a personal level of these internationally acclaimed researchers and innovators will surely be inspiring for TU students.
As The Bangkok Post reported in April 2020,
Mr. Pakpoom, who served as chairperson of Quant Group Company, a financial adviser, was “greatly respected in the finance and investment banking industry and he contributed to the development of education… and business that benefited the nation and society,” as a statement from the Quant Group noted.
By making books available that open windows on subjects that might otherwise be unfamiliar to many students, Mr. Pakpoom and his wife have thoughtfully continued in the tradition of contributing to the “development of education” in the Kingdom.
In other educational efforts, Mr. Pakpoom taught investment banking and financing in the MBA program at Assumption University and was often invited as a guest lecturer at the graduate business schools of Harvard, Wharton, Duke, The University of Chicago, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
In 2015, Mr. Pakpoom gave a keynote address at the Duke University Asia Business Conference, a university-wide event held at his alma mater, the Fuqua School of Business, the business school of Duke University.
The purpose of the Duke University Asia Business Conference was to educate participating students and professionals on the evolving business opportunities in Asian markets, as its webpage noted:
Distinguished business leaders from finance, consulting, technology, healthcare, and other sectors joined us as panelists and presenters at this year’s fifth annual conference titled “Unveiling Asia: the Secrets of Success and the Next Growth Frontier,” which was attended by over 100 students and business professionals… Here are some of the highlights:
First Keynote Address: “ASEAN: Another BRIC in the Wall”
Presented by Pakpoom Vallisuta, Global Executive MBA ’98, member of Fuqua’s Board of Visitors and East Asia Regional Advisory Board, and co-founder and chairman of The Quant Group—an investment banking firm in Thailand.
Mr. Vallisuta introduced the formation of major Asia trade organizations, specifically ASEAN, and how they will be the major drivers in Southeast Asia’s economy. He identified that although China had been the largest manufacturing nation in Asia for the last decade, issues such as rapidly increasing labor cost and reliance on export-led growth hinder China’s future growth. Vallisuta argues that ASEAN countries, if capitalized and focused on their resources and ability strategically, will be able to avoid China’s fate. ASEAN should focus on evolving toward brand equity, resolute toward free flows of trade, services, labor, capital, and investments, and capitalize on their abundance agricultural and resources bases.
The title of the serious presentation provided an example of the speaker’s playful wit: First Keynote Address: “ASEAN: Another BRIC in the Wall refers to the acronym known to all for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as well as to Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC), an investment term.
BRIC investing or BRIC ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that invests in stocks and listed securities associated with the countries of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, otherwise known as the BRIC nations, usually through local stock exchanges or with American and global depositary receipts (GDRs).
By alluding to a BRIC in the wall, rather than the usual phrase in English, a brick in the wall, Mr. Pakpoom was introducing his subject with light-hearted humor.
In a similar way, among the books which he and his wife donated to the TU Library are titles by the noted American humorist Robert Benchley, whose gentle jesting was relished by generations of readers.
Mr. Pakpoom’s genial involvement in bettering society was very much in the tradition of Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, as its website explains:
Living our values
Actions, not words
Since our founding in 1969, society’s expectation for the role of business has expanded beyond pure economic activity. Business is now recognized for its incredible power to transform lives and create common purpose – case in point, societal leadership is now considered a core function of business.
As a business school we don’t just teach these trends – we live them through our own business practices. While we remain accountable to all the traditional measures of business performance, we are also active in using our platform as a force multiplier to better the world.
Talking isn’t enough. We must enable real action. We have an obligation to serve as role models for our students in demonstrating what an organization can look like when it lives its values, even as we prepare them to be inclusive leaders.
Polarization
In our hyper-polarized society, the role of business has become a fundamental issue made even more critical by recent research suggesting business is now the most trusted institution – and the *only* institution viewed as both ethical and competent – ahead of government, the media and even NGOs. Not only is public trust high in business, the data also show that the public is looking for business to help solve some of society’s most pressing challenges…
The Dialogue Project at Duke
The Business of Building a Better Society
Every day, successful businesses bring people together with diverse experiences and points-of-view to work toward common goals. The Dialogue Project, a long-term Fuqua initiative to explore the role business can play to reduce polarization and improve civic dialogue, explores how these skills can be expanded more broadly in our society. Our goal is to equip business leaders with new tools required to succeed in the emerging stakeholder economy. […]
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)