The CEO of Western Digital Corporation and Commander of the Most Admirable Order of the Direkgunabhorn, talks to Horizon Thailand.

How do you feel about receiving The Royal Thai Decorations, Commander (Third Class) of the Most Admirable Order of the Direkgunabhorn?

I’m very excited in particular for our employees in Thailand. We have been an investor here for a number of years and we have enjoyed very strong support from the government and the Board of Investment (BOI). But most importantly, we have very strong support from all of our employees. So I feel that I am accepting this award really on behalf of all the great employees that we have here in Thailand.

What are Western Digital’s plans for Thailand?
Over the last few years, our industry has had to deal with the slowdown in the PC market which has affected our operations. We do not have any immediate plans to expand our operations here in Thailand. But as we look to future investment down the line, Thailand remains at the top of the list of locations where we will continue to look to invest.

What are the benefits of investing in Thailand?
I would say that there are several. One, as I indicated earlier, is that we have very good, well qualified employees. The other thing is that we continue to look for areas where we can bring more engineering work here. Thailand has always been a very good and easy place to do business. It’s a very welcoming business environment and that really comes back with the strong support that we have had over a number of years from the government and in particular the BOI. That makes us confident not only in the investment that we have already made in Thailand, but also to continue to look to make more investment and move forward.

How do you view the computer industry in Thailand?
The Thai government’s policy for the digital economy places a priority on additional IT service capacity using cloud. I think the government has been very progressive in its approach to its own IT infrastructure needs, which is very supportive of our industry.

Does the recent incident in Bangkok affect your company’s policy?
The reality of the world today is that there is a lot of instability in very different places in the world. We are concerned about the safety of our employees in Thailand, but it does not change our view of investing in Thailand. I have spent a lot of my career in Thailand and I have always found it a very safe place to be.