Chaiyong Satjipanon became Thailand’s ambassador to the United States on April 18, 2012.

Born on September 14, 1953, Chaiyong was educated in Thailand and the U.S. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree (with honors) in political science and his master’s degree from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. He earned his master’s degree and PhD, both in law and diplomacy, from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, which he attended after receiving a Fulbright scholarship in 1979.

In 1975, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and worked at the Department of International Organizations. The following year, Chaiyong served as a liaison officer to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

Beginning in 1977 and for the next nine years, he was the third secretary for the International Conference Division in the Department of International Organizations.

In 1986, Chaiyong was made the first secretary at the Permanent Mission of Thailand to the United Nations office in Geneva.

Three years later, he served as counselor in the Department of Political Affairs’ Americas Division. In 1990, he switched to the department’s Southeast Asia Division. That same year, he became director of the Policy and Planning Division in the Office of the Permanent Secretary.

He was made deputy director-general of the Department of Economic Affairs in 1993.

The next year Chaiyong was stationed overseas in Sydney, Australia, serving as consul general in the Royal Thai Consulate-General.

In 2000, he was appointed ambassador attached to the Ministry in the Office of the Permanent Secretary. He also served as director-general of the Department of American and South Pacific Affairs.

Chaiyong became ambassador to Indonesia and Papua New Guinea in 2001, followed by ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva in 2003.

He remained in Europe when he was appointed ambassador to Switzerland, Liechtenstein and to the Vatican in 2007.

Prior to being stationed in Washington, DC, Chaiyong was ambassador to South Korea. During this posting, he suffered a personal tragedy when his wife, Thitinart, became ill and died three days after arriving at Soonchunhyang Hospital in Seoul in September 2011. He later accused the hospital staff of medical malpractice, claiming her death was due to poor treatment. He filed a criminal complaint, but withdrew it before leaving the country for his post in the United States.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

Official C.V. (Royal Thai Embassy)

Thai Envoy to Fight Wife’s Death in Seoul, Bangkok (by Kirsty Taylor, Korea Herald)