Bangkok--17 Mar--Bangkok Bank’s - The Asian Banker Promising Young Banker Award for the Asia Pacific Region - The Asian Banker Promising Young Banker Award for Thailand Bangkok Bank has demonstrated its success in developing a new generation of bankers to build the future of the banking industry in Asia. The Asian Banker, Asia’s leading financial and banking research group, has selected Bangkok Bank Executive Vice President Piya Sosothikul as the inaugural winner of The Asian Banker Promising Young Banker Award for Thailand 2007, and The Asian Banker Promising Young Banker Award for the Asia Pacific Region 2007. Mr. Piya was declared the overall winner among contenders from 16 countries in the Asia Pacific region. The awards are based on three main qualifications: responsibility in supervising a core business division, outstanding management performance and holding a top management position in the organization under 40 years old. The Asian Banker awards aim to identify rising young stars in the banking industry who have the potential to become future leaders. The award honors bankers with outstanding achievements who are in the middle management stage of their careers and aims to help build a culture of excellence among leaders and management teams in the financial and banking industry in Asia. . The winners were chosen after a stringent appraisal process from the judging panel which was led by Mr. David Eldon, Chairman of Dubai International Financial Centre Authority and former chairman of HSBC Asia. Short-listed candidates were required to be responsible for supervising a core business division of their organization, have outstanding achievements in terms of financial performance and revenue generation, and to hold a top management position in the organization. Mr. Piya, 37 years of age, is an Executive Vice President at Bangkok Bank and Director of Provincial Commercial Banking, responsible for 25 percent of SME lending to provincial customers. He heads a team of 230 staff posted to 32 Business Centers nationwide. The youthful Mr. Piya plays an important role in determining the bank’s business policy and strategy. His outstanding achievements in 2007, in addition to growing the loan book of his business unit, included organizing World Class Seminars for three main industries — food, hotel, and automotive parts — and providing loans to customers under the Modern Agriculture Project. New initiatives by Mr. Piya in 2007 and 2008 included a project to increase lending to businesses that help to alleviate the global warming problem, and the highly popular Young Entrepreneurs Project, for a younger generation of business leaders. Mr. Piya earned a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1993, and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering with outstanding average grades of 4.8 and 5.0 in 1993 and 1996, respectively, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He also earned a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University, USA. He worked as a financial analyst at the Investment Banking Department, Goldman Sachs and Co, New York, USA before joining Bangkok Bank in 1997 as a manager at the Special Asset Management Unit responsible for restructuring loans for large corporate customers in various industries. He was later promoted to be a Vice President in Commercial Lending, and manager of the Sathorn Branch. From 2001 to 2005, he was Managing Director at Bualuang Finance Company Limited, at that time, a Bangkok Bank affiliate. In 2005, he returned to Bangkok Bank as a Senior Vice President and Provincial Commercial Banking Assistant Director. In 2007, he was promoted to be an Executive Vice President and to the position of Director of Provincial Commercial Banking, supervising commercial customers in the provinces.