Associate Professor Natcha Thawesaengskulthai, Ph.D., is a Vice President for Strategic Planning, Innovation and Global Engagement. She envisions the futures of higher education and leads CU Innovation Hub, Siam Innovation District, and CU Enterprise that empowers talents, and develops over 100 innovation enterprises or startups with a total market valuation of 500 million USD benefiting over 2 million citizens. She found the School of Integrated Innovation that provides a transdisciplinary platform in the context of future-oriented and demand driven education, research and innovation enterprises. Committing to Innovations for Society, Chula ranks “No.1 in Asia and No.23rd in the World” (the highest-ranking that any Thai university has ever received) and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure) and SDG 15 (Life on Land) are Top in ASEAN by the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings 2021.

Natcha is an Associate Professor in Industrial Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering. She obtained her PhD in Manufacturing Engineering and Operations Management from University of Nottingham, UK, M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Management from Linkoping Institute of Technology, Sweden and B.Eng (1stHon) from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. She is a certified Institute of Directors (IOD) Graduate Member, Project Management Professional (PMP) and ISO9001 auditor. She has engaged in public and private sectors such as International Innovation Award, APRU, AUN, Innovfest Unbound, World Bank, APEC, EU, UN Women, National Science Technology and Innovation Policy Office (STI), Johnson &Johnson, Banpu, SCG, Toray, Charoen Pokphand Group, Bangkok Hospital. Her research publications are in quality engineering, technology and innovation management. Based on her research work, “Claim Di”, a mobile application for facilitating communication and claims between drivers and their insurance companies was Thailand’s first successful startup series B in the insurance industry.