2003 – Bangkok, Thailand
Jongjit Thapanangkun was born in Bangkok where she worked along with her seven brothers and sisters to growthe family business. Her parents, originally from China, had started a small shoe factory, Sri Sam Ank, which now has over 600 employees and exports shoes and rubber products internationally. In 1989, Jongjit and colleagues established LPN Development Co., Ltd., for high-rise building construction. She was the Managing Director for 5 years, during which LPN was successfully listed on the Thai Stock Exchange. The company is now a real estate leader, with 2002 sales of $US 35,000,000. Building on this success, Jongjit started her own business in 1994, investing in land in Burapha Golf Club to build a 46 unit luxury real estate development—JHL Golf Villas and homes. Near the eastern seaboard industrial area, JHL’s target market is expatriates working for international companies. Occupancy rate was 100% from the project’s inception, until the Thai economic crisis of 1997 which affected both industry and real estate. Her landmark achievement has been steering the company through crisis. In 2001, four years after the economic disaster, the company was one of only 300 which survived from the more than 2,000 previously successful companies. In 1971, Jongjit married Savat Thapanangkun; they have three children. Today, Jongjit serves as an Associate Judge in the Labor Court, using the expertise gained through her lifetime experiences to give back to Thai society. A strong believer in education, she believes that one should never give up. Her motto is, “Where there is a will, there is a way.”
