Thailand

Nuttapol Chumnitulakarn has more than ten years of experience in environmental health science in Bangkok, Thailand. He is currently an environment and sanitation officer, professional level at Pathumwan District Office Bangkok Metropolitan Administration in Thailand. Prior to joining the Ministry of Public Health, he was a public health officer in the Bureau of Food and Water Sanitation at the Department of Health in the Ministry of Public Health for three years. During his time at the Ministry of Public Health, he monitored the water supply quality in Thailand and trained community leaders and youth leaders in elementary and secondary schools in remote areas to inspect their water supply quality themselves and built up a healthy community with a good quality water supply.

He initiated the "Clean Air for All" pilot project in Pathumwan District and collaborated with many stakeholders in the government and in private sector. The Clean Air for All project aims to create low emission zones, like the London model, by implementing activities with a range of partners, such as the Academic Center, to drive the prevention of air pollution problems. He also coordinates with the Thai Health Promotion Foundation, Thai PBS Disaster Communication Development Center, the Academic Center, and the Public Transport of Electric Vehicles for air quality management programs for other areas in the future and received an award in excellence from his governor for his work.

Nuttapol is an alumnus of the YSEALI Professional Fellows program, during which he conducted a comparative study focusing on urban green space policies in Texas and Bangkok to develop and support his Clean Air for All project. Nuttapol obtained his bachelor's degree in health science from Thammasat University and his master's degree in urban administration and planning from the University of Seoul.

Bunthicha recently graduated from Chiang Mai University. Currently she is a medical technologist at N-Health clinic in Chiang Rai. After her graduation, she was an international exchange student at Augustana University in South Dakota where she studied medical humanities, ecology, and scientific intersections. While at Augustana, she joined the Kidney Disease Screening and Awareness Program, conducting kidney disease screening and engaging in several community service projects.

Bunthicha is interested in gender inequality, environmental crisis, and public health issues. In late 2021, she had the opportunity to represent the 2021 YSEALI Women Leadership Academy on the topic of gender inequality in a public health system. This year, she will join the YSEALI Summit 2022 that focuses on climate change adaptation and mitigation. Her goal is to create sustainable change and motivate youth to contribute their capabilities to society.

Bunthicha is an alumna of the Global Undergraduate Exchange Program.

Sindy Sitta Marattanachai is the country manager for the New Energy Nexus Thailand Program, where she manages clean energy accelerator programs, solar entrepreneurship training programs, and several technology entrepreneurship bootcamps for university partners to help clean tech startups working on climate solutions and clean energy businesses scale from an idea to real impact. She is currently working on the Decarbonization Thailand Startup Sandbox, her initiative to accelerate clean technology commercialization between startups and Thailand's five largest corporations, which are the country's largest emitters of greenhouse gases.

In addition to her full-time jobs, she is actively empowering young people in social innovation and sustainable development. She is also the founder of Hackathon Thailand, a social enterprise startup that aims to bridge the gap between youth civic engagement and civic participation for social causes through innovation and entrepreneurship. In 2019 and 2020, she hosted Smogathon Thailand focusing on solving air pollution in Thailand; one project initiative from the event was implemented by the Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment. In 2022, she led the team of Thai YSEALI alumni to host Hack the Crisis Covid-19 Online Hackathon, which supported three project initiatives,: a telemedicine startup, a social enterprise, and a mental first-aid application. The Hackathon Thailand team is currently working on the Beach Hack Project, which aims to promote sustainable coastal management and raise awareness about marine conservation while balancing climate change and long-term economic empowerment.

Sindy earned a bachelor's degree in environmental engineering and a master's degree in environmental technology from Chulalongkorn University and Imperial College London, respectively, thanks to fully funded scholarships from the Thai government. She worked as a program manager for corporate innovation initiatives, a policy analyst for the House of Representatives, and an oil and gas environmental specialist before joining New Energy Nexus.

In Fall 2018, Sindy attended the YSEALI Professional Fellows Program and spent time at Old Dominion University and the Norfolk Innovation Center in Virginia, United States.

Aushim Merchant is a 2015 spring alumnus of the Young Southeast Asian Leaders (YSEALI) Professional Fellows Program. He is an experienced renewable energy executive with hands-on experience in designing, building, commissioning and operating world-class facilities to produce petroleum and its derivatives from post-consumer waste plastics. His focus in this sector has expanded to include microgrid battery storage and hydrogen to contribute towards energy security through green electrification.

He has also participated and served as a delegate speaker at the One Young World Summit, the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in India (2017), the Ship for Southeast Asian and Japanese Youth Program (2018), the Australian ASEAN Emerging Leaders Program (2019) and the Swedish Asia Pacific Program (2020).

Chayut is currently a chief executive officer and founder of Tact Social Consulting, a Thai social enterprise established in 2018 with the mission to accelerate values- based sustainability in Thai businesses and institutions while empowering youth and private sectors to promote social change. Tact strives to foster a sustainable future using practices with measurable impacts that focus on ESG. In addition, Chayut has a certificate in sustainable business strategy from Harvard Business School Online. He is also an expert on design thinking and social enterprise with several years of experience as a lecturer for more than 1,000 audiences and mentored undergraduate students and Thai startups for more than fifty people.

Chayut won a prize from the Young Social Entrepreneurs Global 2021, organized by Singapore International Foundation, selected from 150 teams around Asia to attend an incubation workshop for developing strategy with professional mentors. As the leader of Tact, he focuses on raising social awareness and sustainable development by creating social projects to meet sustainability goals under three issues: environment, education, and small and medium enterprises (SME) support.

Apart from Tact, Chayut was on the board of the Green Event Management Committee for Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to develop a waste management strategy and work closely to maximize the integration of NGOs with public and private sectors to conduct solid-waste management in Bangkok. He was a Global Shaper, born out of the World Economic Forum, which is a network of young people driving dialogue, action, and change. He was also selected to be a delegate from Thailand for One Young World Summit Bangkok and the YSEALI Regional Workshop at Bali.