Despite her familial ties to Thailand’s most powerful real estate and retail empires, this visionary business leader has decided to flip the script, opting instead to follow the example of her parents and build her own successes.
The only child of Sansiri’s Apichart Chutrakul and his wife Chadatip, the head of retail giant Siam Piwat, Chayapa “Pink” Chutrakul was born in Bangkok and, from an early age, already exhibited signs of being an independent thinker. For instance, at the age of eight, she chose for herself a Western education, deciding not to return to Thailand after getting a taste of summer school in the UK.
“My parents didn’t send me away or force me to go to boarding school,” she explains. “This was purely my decision. At that age, I didn’t like living in the city. I loved the big green field that the school let us do everything in, and I loved playing sports. I just thought, ‘life’s good here, so I’m staying’.”
This wasn’t exactly what Pink’s parents had in mind, especially not her mum, but they could concede that the education style paired well with their sporty, outgoing daughter. Pink remained in the UK until she was 15, when she moved to the USA to continue her schooling in Massachusetts, and afterwards enrolled in college on the West Coast.
With her childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood spent mostly isolated from her parents, Pink describes her unconventional household dynamic and what family unity looks like for the Chutrakuls.
“My parents are both leaders of their respective companies and field of work. They’re both very hardworking, and I watched them go through the Tom Yum Goong crisis of ‘97 during my formative years. So, I grew up used to them leaving for work early in the morning and coming home late every day. It was just natural for me to never take hard work and long hours for granted,” she points out, foreshadowing her career choice later on.
“All three of us are very independent,” she continues. “We may not be a family that needs to have lunch or dinner together at a set time every day, but we share a similar career-driven lifestyle and mindset, ultimately forging a bond that can never be broken.”
From 2011 to 2015, Pink attended Scripps College in California, where she studied Mass Communication, a subject she was passionate about. One of the benefits of attending a member school of Claremont Colleges is access to courses taught in other schools within the consortium, so Pink spent a considerable amount of time at the Harvey Mudd College campus, getting her exposure to the computer science world.
After graduating, she immediately put her degree to use, working in brand strategy at an agency in New York, and then at McCann Worldgroup in Bangkok. After nearly two years in agencies, she decided to try her hand at her mother’s company, working as Lead Marketing Communication and Digital Strategist for Siam Piwat’s new, big project at the time: IconSiam.
“The first pivotal point in my career happened here when the CRM team I was working with started having conversations about building databases. It was at this moment that I realised that this was the whole business. This is the most important engine that we don’t even have yet.”
Pink became part of the group that built this critical database for Siam Piwat to use for their customer relations and marketing. But as a perfectionist wanting to do the best job, she felt she needed to understand all the moving parts of the chain. In 2019, whilst carrying on consulting Siam Piwat on matters of business development, she decided to do her Master’s in Applied Analytics at Columbia University. A couple of years later, she went on to work a stint at True Corporation, in content business development, before starting her own company, The Pink Lab, in 2022.
An incubator and consultancy for Web 3.0 businesses, The Pink Lab is a culmination of all the skills and know-how Pink has collected since her college student days and especially during her graduate studies in New York. “When you’re in the computer science arena, it’s hard not to know anything about crypto or get roped into blockchain because it’s an everyday conversation with your classmates. Everybody has been invited to some blockchain meetup, and talk about Web 3.0, NFTs, and crypto was at an all-time high when I was in the States.”
Upon returning to Thailand, she felt people were looking to her for answers about cryptocurrency and blockchain, with some even offering to pay for her insight. That’s when she realised she could make a business out of it. When asked what innovations she is most fascinated by in this space, The Pink Lab’s founder is confident in her answer.
“Although we’re still in what the industry called ‘tech winter’, I believe that the most exciting development in this space right now is AI. It’s something that I always tell people will change their lives, but the best AI, the one that I’m forever keen about, is the AI that’s going to improve human efficiency, not destroy our careers.”
As an example, she cites LIV-24, a security solutions company The Pink Lab has been working with, helping to implement AI technology to better monitor the premises and geofence of properties, as well as all the smart IOTs that can be found inside the properties (such as sensors for electricity, water, and fire). All these factors are monitored 24/7 by AI technology, while the existing team of human security guards utilises this technology to help them do their job without the risk of human error or the challenges of human limitations.
“This is something that I really believe in because it’s a solution that doesn’t come at the cost of laying off human workers,” she says proudly.
With LIV-24, or other clients, The Pink Lab not only helps them develop and integrate AI to improve their services and operations but also helps them market these innovations to the consumer, because – as Pink knows very well through personal experience – it can be difficult for consumers to comprehend and accept new tech.
After making a name for herself with The Pink Lab in tech circles, Pink found herself last year being approached by big-time Singaporean investors looking to form a new multinational marketing and communications agency aimed at elite clients in luxury, retail, and experiential fields. Called Directions Group, Pink joined as Executive Director and now spends the majority of her time focusing on building what’s important to the business of the agency.
“Entering into this partnership was actually a significant career achievement for me,” remarks the 31-year-old entrepreneur. “Although this international joint venture was originally the idea of my Singaporean partners from Directions Group, I have been the one to finalise the deal and build the business from the ground up. Most importantly, I’m grateful that my partners didn’t choose me because of other external factors, but really looked at my professional record and the variety of skills that I could bring to the table to make the business successful.”
As a career woman, Pink lives by one personal motto: Ninety-nine mistakes will get you one success. “You have to fail endlessly, and make so many mistakes, to be able to get the success that you want.”
Looking back on her entire repertoire of work experiences, she shares that learning didn’t come at just one major juncture but rather consistently throughout, adding that she’s grateful for all the opportunities she’s been given to fail and have a manager correct her. “After all the personal mistakes and experiences under many great supervisors and bosses, I was able to make decisions with better results for the company and stakeholders,” she says.
Now at a completely different stage in her career, being her own boss and running her own companies, the stakes are a bit different. “I have to have an entrepreneurial mindset, which is to be willing to do everything that you never had to do on your own before, like human resources, administration, construction, contracts, and legal… Thank god, I’m not afraid to make mistakes because I still do!” she laughs. “But you learn along the way and slowly graduate into somebody who is capable to supervise and run the business as a whole.
Perhaps many entrepreneurs and people who love what they do for a living can relate to Pink on her current state of work-life balance.
“I often forget that people need work-life balance. My whole life, everybody’s at work all the time. No one has a life, and it wasn’t until I started working with the younger generation that I realised that today’s professionals require work-life balance. I consider it my weakness that I don’t personally see the upside to this.”
As for her daily schedule, she wakes up at 8am every morning, which doesn’t sound so bad until you hear that her workday typically ends at 3am. “After my regular day job, seeing clients and meeting with my partners, my second job is talking to people in tech from across the world, so I’m frequently on calls from 8pm until 3am.” As for free time, Pink says she doesn’t really have it because any free time is just recycled back into her schedule.
After turning 30, and having followed this routine for the last couple of years, this busy body exec is starting to realise it’s not a sustainable lifestyle in the long run. “Health is something that never bothered me until I got older. Today, my lifestyle has started to take its toll on my body, so I’m now taking baby steps towards a better routine.” Some of these baby steps include cutting down on nighttime calls, meditating for 10 minutes at the start of the day and at the end of the day, and penning in time for family and friends.
One of the reasons achieving a work-life balance has been an uphill battle for Pink is because she’s so passionate about what she does for a living. As a true PR professional, she points out the similarities between her line of work and that of a magazine’s editorial team.
“You get to meet so many interesting people, you’re not glued to a desk, and you have to go out and explore many types of cool places and experiences. Even though it’s work, it’s fun for me.”
For someone who needs to make a good impression on a regular basis, she shares that her personal style is one of practicality yet sophistication, citing Michelle Obama as something of a reference point. Wearing Gucci for this month’s story and cover shoot, she considers good taste to be something one acquires over time.
“Cultivating a sense of style is a journey of discovery between yourself and your world,” she reflects. “It’s about learning to curate and combine elements harmoniously, not merely accumulating high-priced items. In my humble opinion, true elegance emerges when individual pieces are woven together to create an ensemble that resonates with the occasion and expresses sophistication. After all, the essence of good taste lies in the artful presentation, where the value is dictated by the thoughtfulness and selection of each piece.”
Before the end our session, we ask our May cover personality to look backwards and forwards on her life.
“Compared to myself a decade ago, I would say that I’m a lot more patient now. I used to be so hard on myself about wasting time over the mistakes I made. Now, I know how to use time better. Before, I could never have imagined myself sacrificing 20 minutes a day for meditation, nor being patient for outcomes and success.
“As for the future,” she muses, “with Directions Group just getting started, I’m looking forward to propelling it to a place where it is beloved, trusted, and respected by brands and customers. To do that, we have to deliver on our promise of uncompromised quality and creativity. All the success will come when you do your job right.”
Photographer: Pisid Whangvisarn
Makeup Artist: Nontalee Wongpeng
Hair Stylist: Tunlayaporn Nakngoenthong
Editorial Coordinator: Amornrat Sannongmuang
Location: Bugaan Pattanakarn
Senior Editor, Prestige Southern Thailand
Based in Phuket, Mika Apichatsakol is the Senior Editor of Prestige Thailand and the magazine's vanguard for its coverage of Southern Thailand's wealth. When she's not writing or editing, Mika can be found ..Read More
Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest updates.
Thank you for your subscription.
