Takorn Tantasith

Takorn Tantasith is the Secretary General of Thai Sang Thai Party, Chairman of the Committee on Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, The House of Representatives and also the Member of the House of Representatives of Thailand.

Previously, he served as the first Secretary-General of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), Thailand.

Being Secretary-General, he holds the highest executive position at the Office of the NBTC, having roles and responsibilities as stipulated by the Act on Organization to Assign Radio Frequency and to Regulate the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Services B.E. 2553 (2010).

The first auction, held in November for the 1800 MHz spectrum, concluded after an unprecedented two-day bidding battle and generated more than 80 billion baht in public revenue.

The second auction, held a month later for the 900 MHz spectrum, lasted over four days with the final revenue reaching over 150 billion baht.

Takorn was born on 10 September 1960.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (Second-Class Honors) from Ramkhamhaeng University, Thailand, in 1982, and a master's degree in Public Administration from Detroit University, United States, in 1986.

Prior to this, he was Acting Secretary-General of the NBTC, and Secretary-General of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC)from 2009-2012.

Takorn was appointed Secretary-General of the NBTC on 5 January 2012, for a five-year term, and in late 2016 was reappointed for a second term starting 5 January 2017.

In 2013, Takorn received an honorary doctorate in Public Administration from Prince of Songkla University, Thailand.

One of the accomplishments of Takorn as Secretary-General of the NBTC is the two spectrum auctions organized by the Office of the NBTC in 2015.

Earlier in 2015, Takorn also spearheaded a nationwide campaign to register all mobile SIM cards in Thailand, and ordered a temporary suspension of Thai TV's licence following the channel's non-payment of its digital television licence fees.

Following a great achievement in 2015 that unleashed 4G mobile internet and transformed Thai economy landscape, the Office of NBTC under Takorn's leadership organized auctions in 2018 for the expiring 1800 MHz and 900 MHz spectrum bands which generated a total revenue of 50 billion baht.

He was also awarded a "Technology Person of the Year" in 2015 by Foundation of Science and Technology of Thailand in 2015, an honorary degree for doctor of philosophy by Srinakharinwirot University in 2017, and Human Resource Excellence Award presented by Thammasat University in 2017.

Takorn is married to Pornpanee Tantasith.

Pornpanee holds a bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Arts at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, and a Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics (Teaching English as a Second Language) from the University of South Florida, United States, and previously was a lecturer at Assumption University (ABAC), Thailand.

Takorn and Pornpanee have two sons, Chantawit and Kritti, and one daughter, Isaree.

A former scholarship student of the Bank of Thailand, Chantawit graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) with a Bachelor of Political and Economics.

After his stint at Bank of Thailand, he completed a master in public policy at Harvard University and a master's degree in economics from Columbia University.

He is currently pursuing PhD in public policy at Oxford University.

Isaree received a scholarship from the Office of the NBTC and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in law from Magdalene College, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom and holds a Master of Laws (LLM) from the Australian National University (ANU), Australia and graduated from the Thai Barrister Association.

She is currently serving as a Judge at Court of Justice.

Kritti is a recipient of the Thai government scholarship and completed a bachelor's degree in social policy from London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) After he finished his master studies in anthropology from University College London (UCL)He is currently a lecturer at Thammasat University

Takorn has received the following royal decorations in the Honours System of Thailand:

Takorn has received the following awards.

In 2019, the Office of NBTC held an auction for 700 MHz in advance to prepare Thailand for 5G era.

The total revenue earned was 56 billion baht this time.

For 2020, under his direction, the Office of NBTC plans to release 5G spectrum in these following bands: 700 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2600 MHz and 26 GHz to the private sector in February.