Paul Pruangkarn

Chief of Staff, Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA)

Paul Pruangkarn is the Chief of Staff at the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand.

In his role, he assists the CEO in executing the strategic goals and activities of the Association across all departments. In addition, he is currently overseeing the day-to-day operations of all communications, public relations, and marketing, and serves as one of the key spokespersons for the Association. Furthermore, Paul manages PATA’s public sector relationships with governments across the region, ensuring alignment of the Association’s public policy positions together with its member organisations, Alliance partners, and NGO associates such as the World Bank and the World Economic Forum.

In his communications role, he works to enhance PATA’s public image through various media outlets and maintains the Association’s media partnerships with such organisations as BBC World News, Skift, TTG Asia, and Travel Weekly Group. He has also spoken regularly at conferences on behalf of PATA, as well as facilitated and emceed many events organised by the Association.

Paul hails from New York and has spent over a decade living in Thailand. Prior to PATA, Paul worked at an Internet start-up in Bangkok as the Senior Business Development Manager, overseeing its daily operations and B2B hotels sales partnerships, and as the Sub-Editor at Radio Thailand English Language News, where he also worked as an on-air personality. Before moving to Thailand, he spent five years as the Newsroom Supervisor at Business Wire, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, working with clients across the US, London, Paris, Berlin, and Tokyo.

He has also worked for such companies as Reuters, British Petroleum, and Traditional Home Magazine. Paul received his Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Classics with a concentration in Mediterranean Art and Archaeology from the University at Buffalo in New York.