Mr. Vikrom Kromadit is the son of a sugarcane farmer whose mother was a merchant in a small marketplace of Tha Rue District, Kanchanaburi Province. When he was young, he had a strong determination that one day he would be the owner of abundant and vast fields with good colleagues, enjoying a peaceful life.
After elementary school, he went to Taiwan to study in a high school. After finishing high school, he furthered his studies in the Faculty of Engineering in Taiwan National University. There, he became acquainted with Chinese customs and culture, and shaped his thoughts on the development of agriculture and industry, which he adapted from Japan.
After that, he returned to Thailand and started his business in international trading with foreigners. His objective was to secure foreign investment and his business succeeded. In 1989, he founded his first “Industrial Estate”, in the expectation that he would make his dream become real. This was the beginning of his business concept of “The Perfect City.” At present, he is managing three eco-friendly industrial estates in Thailand and Vietnam, Amata Nakorn, Amata City and Amata City Bien Hoa. The total project area of three industrial estates is approximately 100 square kilometers, and there are almost 850 companies from 30 countries generating 30 Billion US Dollar worth of products. In 2007, Forbes Magazine ranked him as 27th of the 40 richest men in Thailand and the next year named him one of the 48 Heroes of Philanthropy in Asia.
The Amata Foundation believes that interest, thought, and imagination are reflections of people’s genuine individuality. In addition to the establishment of the Amata Foundation, Mr. Vikrom Kromadit is interested in many subjects such as natural and environmental issues, education for youth, and various branches of art and culture; these experiences have inspired him to frame his ideas for the Foundation. He foresees that they must be preserved, studied, and promoted by the Foundation to be beneficial to society worldwide.
The Chairman’s philosophy behind the creation of the Amata Foundation was to return to society the profit he received from doing business; implementing this concept has provided countless benefits in his personal life, thinking, and fortune. He feels an obligation to repay the motherland in which he lives. Furthermore, there is truth in Amata’s philosophy that “we are from nothing, thus we will return to nothing” at the end of our lives. This motivates the Chairman to endeavor to make something useful for the world.
Apart from his industrial estate business, Mr.Vikrom is currently the Chairman of Amata Foundation. Now he spends most of the time working with Amata Foundation on three main objectives:
The first one is to educate people by writing many books, based on his life and working experience. More than 1.6 million copies of his books have been published. “Be A Better Man”, the best seller, is now translated to Chinese, Japanese, English and Vietnamese. Moreover, “Be A Better Man” also was produced in Thai TV drama named “Fire Amata” or “Amata’s Fire” and was released on Free TV Channel 9 between April and July 2010. He would like the masses of Thai people to realize, learn and think about the social development for Thailand’s better future.
The second objective is to preserve and promote the regional cultures, especially arts and writings by arranging the Amata Art Award and the Amata Writer Award annually.
The last one is to improve Thailand’s society and environment by motivating and encouraging people to do something good for their hometowns. He is a columnist for Bangkok Biz and Post Today newspapers and for several magazines. Moreover, in 2004 he became a radio broadcaster and, in 2005, began appearing on television on many programs.