Charoenpong Punsiri – or ‘Jack’ – is one of the most active members of the Activities Committee of Thai-Danish Club.
“Studying in Denmark built up my self-confidence,” Jack says when trying to sum up the benefit of his Danish influence.
“In terms of technology and life experiences – including culture, language and the ways of socializing with European people – I also gained a lot,” Jack adds.
While studying in Denmark Jack did not face any difficulty regarding cultural issues as they used to have cultural meetings called “International Party” every Wednesday at Aalborg University, where he studied. On these evenings, people of different cultures would come together to exchange their views and share their cultural backgrounds.
“Studying in Denmark also helped me a lot when I came back to work here in Thailand because the Danish curriculum is based on work-group; meaning that projects is assigned to each group, each member in the group are then responsible to divide different tasks among themselves, analyze the problem and come up with the solution which is just like working in real life,” he adds.
The kind and friendly Danish people, efficient lecturers, the secure Thai community, the convenient transportation system and the fresh weather are other aspects of his stay in Denmark that he still fondly remembers..
“And then, studying in Denmark of course also enabled me to join Thai-Danish Club as Activities Committee in Thailand,” Jack laughs.
At Thai-Danish Club, Jack is in charge of creating and promoting activities in order for members to interact with each other to widen the personal network and for cultural exchange purpose. These activities at Thai-Danish Club are also the opportunities for members to share their businesses, he said. Members here are either Thais who have an experience in Denmark or Danes who are doing business in Thailand.
An examples of activities that being promoted in Thai-Danish Club are Water Rally which was being held in the year 2006 where there were total of 35 people joining the activities. The other one is bowling which was held as the first tournament in November, 2006 at Central World Plaza, Thailand and there were 40 people joining it.
Jack graduated a bachelor in engineering in Bangkok. Shortly after, he started working with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA). Having worked with BMA for 4-5 years, he learned several problems regarding wastewater treatment in Bangkok.
“It was during this time that I met Professor Jens Aage Hensen from Denmark, who offered me a tuition-free scholarship at Aalborg University to pursue his master degree,” Jack recalls.
Jack stayed in Denmark for one year and ten months studying Urban and industrial Wastes and Wastewater Engineering, Solid Waste and Polluted Management. He focused on this topic as his master thesis by using his data and information in Thailand to find out the effective methods to increase the water quality.
“After completing my study in Denmark, I resumed to work with BMA for 2 year. It was only until recently that I decided to resign due to the new challenge I was offered by the Cargill Company and, frankly speaking, the compensation,” Jack explains.
“The job hunter company informed me that Cargill was interested in my profile. Initially, I didn’t know much about this company. My friend in the Thai Danish Club, Wai, told me that it is in fact a quite well-known American company involving with environment and agriculture. Finally, I accepted it as the real challenge awaiting me.”
With the complicated job title, he explains that, currently, he is in charge of initiating and supporting projects for Methane gas capture, renewable energy project development as well as Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project development for Certified Emission Reduction (CER).
“My past work experiences related to implement several wastewater treatment projects in Bangkok. Also, I am interested in environmental impact assessment of solid waste and polluted solid,” Jack added.
