Bizbuzz

"Love and revenge" are always good for a Thai soap-opera plot. Main actors and actresses are also crucial ingredients.

Channel 7, a home of top-rated TV dramas, seems to be happy to have Teerapat "Tui" Sajakul as the main actor along with Usamanee "Kwan" Waitayanon in "Mai Sin Rai Fai Sawat" (Unending Fire of Passion), which enjoys its highest prime-time ratings on Mondays and Tuesdays.

MCOT director-general Sivaporn Chomsuvan acknowledged that Tui was always a great actor as well as singer. Sivaporn also confessed that he was a big fan of Tui and the soap opera.

Sivaporn added that MCOT’s radio team still needed a chief executive for SEED 97.5 FM. So the head of the state media enterprise passed a message via The Nation to the big TV star: "After the revenge game comes to an end with your love in that soap opera, Tui, please come back home. The SEED family is still waiting for you."

He smiled and continued: "We strongly believe that Tui can help SEED become a top-rated radio station, like the TV drama he stars in."

SEED 97.5 FM is one of the most popular radio stations run by MCOT.

An iron lady, with a smile

MW Brands chief executive Elisabeth Fleuriot, the only woman in Thai Union Frozen Products’ eight-member global leadership team, is often seen in her favourite red sweater and an 18-karat-gold necklace. And she surprised many of a group of Thai reporters who came to interview her at her Paris office with her very big, unwavering smile.

Fleuriot did not show any signs of fatigue even though she had just came back from a business trip and had rushed from the airport with a motorcycle taxi service to meet the group of Thai journalists, reaching her office just 10 minutes before they arrived.

Joining MW Brands only 18 months ago, the former senior vice president of Kellogg’s in charge of emerging markets, and was behind two acquisitions made last year that have come under her responsibility, King Oscar of Norway and MerAlliance, a French smoked-salmon producer.

Mergers and acquisitions are a key strategy of the Thai Union group, which has set a bold target to double its sales to US$8 billion (Bt267 billion) by 2020.

Fleuriot declined to say anything about her current M&A plans. But guessing from her very busy schedule that had earlier obliged the Thai journalist group to reschedule their itinerary to match her available time, this iron lady could have some deals under consideration.

Contributed by Watchiranont Thongtep and Pichaya Changsorn