Dr Viroj Mavichak, Managing Director of Thai Oil Plc
Born: December 2, 1948
Education:
- Bachelor’s Degree (Honours) in Civil Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok
- Master’s Degree and PhD in Civil Engineering, University of Texas at Austin
Dr Viroj began his career in the petroleum and petrochemical businesses at the then Natural Gas Organization of Thailand (NGOT) which had become a part of the state-run Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT) in 1978, before being incorporated as PTT Plc and listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand in late 2001.
In 1994, he was appointed deputy governor for corporate finance, and a year later he was appointed as a director of the National Fertilizer Plc and an executive director for PTT’s Petrochemical Sector Group.
In 1999, Dr Viroj became the managing director of the National Petrochemical Plc (NPC), where he was recognized for his vision and determination for growth and success of the business.
During his time at NPC from 1999-2005, Dr Viroj had successfully led the company to its first overseas investment in the Middle East by expanding investment into Iran on a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) project as a joint investment between NPC, NPC (Iran), Siam Cement Group, Iran’s National Petrochemical Company and Japan’s Itochu Corp.
Dr Viroj also realized the tendency for significant growth in the polymer business, together with the readily supply of raw materials available to NPC to expand to downstream petrochemical, NPC then invested in the HDPE project with the production capacity of 200,000 tons a year.
Later, he also initiated the investment on the new cracker project for ethylene plant with the capacity of 1,000,000 tons a year, using the supply of ethane from PTT. Dr Viroj further brought continuous investment in plastic pallet business which includes investment in a low-density polyethylene (LDPE) plant with the capacity of 300,000 tons a year and a linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant with the capacity of 400,000 tons a year.
At NPC, Dr Viroj also improved the management system by introducing enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to simplify work procedures that were redundant and problematic. He also introduced the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) system which focuses on the assessment of employees through the competency paradigm to create fairness. He also set up servicing businesses for NPC which offer maintenance and engineering services for clients throughout Thailand and Asia, as well as offering safety and environmental services for network government agencies and private companies.
The abovementioned investment, initiatives and organizational changes brought immeasurable growth, strength and stability to NPC.
In addition, Dr Viroj was the vital force behind the merger between NPC and Thai Olefins Plc (TOC) in 2005 to become PTT Chemical Plc, Thailand’s largest and fully-integrated petrochemical manufacturer.
On December 26, 2005, Dr Viroj had been appointed as the managing director of Thai Oil Plc, which went into effect from January 1 of the following year.
At Thai Oil, Dr Viroj led the company to a successful expansion of a crude distillation unit which boosted Thai Oil refinery capacity by 50,000 barrel a day to 275,000 barrel a day, making Thai Oil the largest refinery in Thailand.
Under his directions, Thai Oil’s fully-owned aromatic company, Thai Paraxylene Co., Ltd., was able to successfully complete its aromatic plant expansion, resulting in a new combined production capacity of 900,000 tons a year, more than double its previous capacity.
In February last year, following his vision and leadership, Thai Oil notably became the first refinery in Thailand to produce EURO IV standard diesel fuel, four years ahead of Thai government’s schedule, placing Thailand among five Asian countries to have begun production of EURO IV standard diesel fuel.
On November 21, Dr Viroj received the “Best CEO of the Year 2008” award from the annual SET Awards 2008 event, jointly organized by the Stock Exchange of Thailand and the Money & Banking Magazine.
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