New working format of the Dancham AGM

Dancham – Danish-Thai Chamber of Commerce – experimented this year once again with the format of its Annual Meeting. The old, passive “the board talks – the members listen” format is history, from now on members will take an active part in group discussions with other members sharing similar interests.

The meeting started with a question and answer session where leaders of some of the advocacy groups established under the JFCCT – Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce – explained the issues they were working with. Inspired by this input, the members were divided into similar groups, where they discussed issues as diverse as the re-creation of the NYP – Nordic Young Professionals – to tackling the ever-present burden of corruption.

Outgoing President Thomas Nyborg explains in this short video the benfits of the new, active AGM format.

Of course, the election of new members of the Board was as usual an exciting point on the agenda. The biggest surprise in that respect was, that the name of the new President will not be know for several weeks. Acting President Charlie Chomchan explained that the board will use a secret ballot at its first meeting in April to decide on the division of task among its members – including who will be the next President.

Four new members joined the board. They were Kristoffer Paludan – Michael Page International, Joachim Schalck – Vestas, Stiig Waever, Praesidio Group, and Frank D. Henriksen – DanThai Machinery. Current Vice President Supareark Charlie Chomchan – Pacific Rim Rich Group, was re-elected as board member and Sune Sucksdorff – Net Protection Concepts International became substitute board member.

More details on who each of these persons are can be found in this document uploaded by Dancham prior to the AGM.

See also the video where Secretary General Michael Andersen explains how Dancham will this year spend 600,000 THB of its accumulated profits on improvements of its facilities and services for members.

More ScandAsia videos.

The panel discussion with members of the JFCCT was moderated by Vice President Supareark Chalie Chomchan. The panel members were Stanley Kang (President JFCCT), Steve Chen (SME), Willem Niemeijer (tourism), and Per Lind (ICT).

After this, the members established five groups.

  • Anti-Corruption
  • Logistics
  • Eastern Seaboard
  • NYP – Nordic Young Professionals
  • SAP – Senior Advisory Professionals

The AGM 2017 was opened after a delicious buffet dinner by DTCC President Thomas Nyborg who introduced former President Tom Soerensen as the Moderator of the meeting. The chairman concluded the AGM was legally called and proceeded with the agenda points of the AGM.

The board presentation for 2017 started with remembrance of Consul General Joergen Scmidt who passed away in August 2016 after a prolonged illness. Mr. Stig Vagt Andersen spoke fondly of Mr Schmidt, who was the founder and owner of DZ cards. He will be remembered by many for his generous contributions over many years to the DTCC and the Danish community in Thailand in general. The participants stood up in one minute of silence to honor the memory of Joergen Schmidt.

The new Secretary General of the DTCC Mr. Michael Andersen presented the status of the secretariat and admitted that the secretariat had faced several challenges and shortcoming in the past couple of years but is now on track to make the required improvements.

Mr. Simon Scheibel presented the audited Accounts for 2016 which was approved by the members and proceeded to explain the budget for the coming year. His presentation had the form of an action plan for the period 2017 – 2019 with a budget to support the action plan to be launched this year. The action plan includes more involvement of members, more clear visible member benefits, and upgrade of the office and its staff as well as the website among other activities planned for 2017.

The election of five new Directors for the Board of Directors of the Chamber was preceded by an introduction of the six candidates standing for election to the five seats available. The election committee worked hard to count the ballots and in a close vote the following candidates were elected:
Mr. Joachim Schalck from Vestas Wind Technology (THAILAND) Ltd. with 33 votes.
Mr. Frank D. Henriksen from DanThai Machinery Co. Ltd. with 29 votes.
Mr. Stiig Waever from Praesidio Group with 25 votes
Mr. Kristoffer Paludan from Michael Page International Recruitment Thailand Ltd. with 22 votes and
Dr. Supareak Charlie Chomchan from Pacific Rim Rich Group Co., Ltd. with 19 votes.
As the reserve member of the Board, Mr. Sune Sucksdorf from Net Protection Concepts International Co., Ltd. was elected with 17 votes.

The complete Board of Directors for the next 12 months comprises the following 11 Directors:

Mr. Frank D. Henriksen.
Mr. Jesper Riis-Antonsen,
Mr. Santhapat Periera,
Mr. Simon Scheibel,
Ms. Sophie Edelgren,
Mr. Stig Vagt-Andersen,
Mr. Torben Nybo Jensen,
Mr. Stiig Waever,
Mr. Joachim Schalck,
Mr. Kristoffer Paludan
Dr. Supareak Charlie Chomchan

The fresh 2017 Board will convene in three weeks’ time to select the new President and the new Vice-President of the Chamber and assign responsibilities to the directors.

In his closing remarks, Tom Sorensen thanked outgoing President Thomas Nyborg for his dedication to serving the Chamber for several years and gave him a present as a token of appreciation of the Chamber members.

After the AGM, some members stayed on for a while to discuss the AGM and other community affairs over a drink or a beer. The event was sponsored by Carlsberg, ECCO, Jyske Bank, Novo Nordisk, Pandora & Royal Copenhagen.

 

About Gregers Møller

Editor-in-Chief • ScandAsia Publishing Co., Ltd. • Bangkok, Thailand

View all posts by Gregers Møller

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