Who is Thai billionaire heiress Nualphan Lamsam, Hermès distributor and football lover who runs a US$98 billion empire and has over 2 million followers on Instagram and Facebook?
‘Madam Pang’ was educated at Boston University, is the chairwoman of the Thai premier league team Port Football Club and her clan founded Thailand’s Kasikorn Bank – no wonder her family name is a Thai word for ‘rich’
Though she is a fifth-generation scion of the powerful Thai-Chinese Lamsam family and her family name, “Lamsam”, has become a Thai colloquialism for “rich”, Nualphan “Pang” Lamsam, 54, has charted her own paths to success across many wide-ranging passions.
The Lamsam family founded Kasikorn Bank, or KBank. As one of Thailand’s largest lenders, it has US$98 billion in assets and a sizeable portfolio that includes major insurance companies.
Pang’s cousin, Kasikorn Bank CEO Banthoon Lamsam, and his family are listed by Forbes as the 31st richest in Thailand with a combined net worth of US$860 million. Pang’s two younger siblings are also accomplished in their own ways too – Wannaporn Phornprapa runs her own landscape and design studio with projects throughout Asia and Europe while Sara Lamsam runs Muang Thai Life Assurance.
“Madam Pang”, as she is affectionately known, was born in 1966 in Bangkok and graduated with a marketing degree from the prestigious Chulalongkorn University, one of the oldest institutes of higher education in Thailand. She later pursued a master’s degree in management at Boston University. She is currently married to Pol. Col. Naras Savestanan, director general of the Corrections Department in Thailand.
The elegant and high-powered Pang wears many hats and has already made her mark across different industries – she is president and CEO of Muang Thai Insurance, a matriarch of both men’s and women’s football teams in Thailand, author of a memoir and honorary consul to the Consulate of Lithuania in Bangkok, as well as a prominent society celebrity.
But her main job is president and CEO at Muang Thai Insurance, one of the leading non-life insurance companies in Thailand. She even fronted the company’s most recent branding campaign “Believe Pang”, and her face graces publications and billboards across the country.
While she balances her high-profile corporate responsibilities, Pang has also broken ground in the male-dominated world of sports, and is chairwoman of the Thai premier league team Port Football Club. She insists that football remains a key passion in her life and that managing the national women’s team is a position that remains close to her heart.
The award-winning businesswoman and confessed shopaholic was among the early importers of designer labels in Thailand and owns Hermès distributor, Saint Honorè (Bangkok). She is also co-owner of Meister Technik, an official distributor of Audi automobiles in the country.
With her calendar full of appointments, Pang still manages to find time to share her lifestyle on her social media accounts, inspiring over two million followers.