Panellist

Senior Chairman, Charoen Pokphand Group Thailand

President, China Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurs Association

 

Mr. Dhanin Chearavanont is Senior Chairman of the Charoen Pokphand Group (CP)，President of China Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurs Association（COCEA）. With humble beginnings in Bangkok, Thailand in the 1920’s, CP today is a global business covering agribusiness & food, retailing and international trading, telecommunications and property development industry. With 300,000 employees and an annual turnover of USD 55 billion, CP operates from production bases in sixteen countries in Asia and Europe. CP’s agribusiness & food division entails livestock and aquaculture operations from primary production to processing, sale and distribution in Thailand, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Turkey, Myanmar and Russia. As the first foreign investor in China, CP has in the course of over thirty years expanded its business footprint across the country in feed production, animal husbandry, food processing, retailing, property development and financial services, as well as pharmaceutical and motorcycle manufacturing.

Mr. Dhanin is recognized internationally for his involvement in the promotion of national development, people’s well-being and international business understanding and cooperation. Chosen by the Chinese national media as one of China’s best-known international friends, Mr. Dhanin is also the inaugural President of the Beijing-endorsed China Association of Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurs. For his part in promoting close investment ties with Russia, Mr. Dhanin has also been awarded the Order of Saint Nicholas by the Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker Charitable Foundation. The Harvard Business School in the United States has also highlighted Mr. Dhanin and CP’s contributions in the development of China’s rural sector in case studies on the CP agribusiness involvement in China over the past three decades. Mr. Dhanin has been recognized by Forbes Magazine as one of the world’s billionaire philanthropists for several years running, and was chosen by Forbes Asia Magazine as “Businessman of The Year” in 2011. On September 3, 2015, a total of 1,779 overseas Chinese were invited to attend the grand ceremony held in Beijing, China, to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the Victory of World Anti-Facist War and of the Chinese People’s War against Japanese Aggression. Among all the invited guests, Mr. Dhanin was one of the five highly respected overseas Chinese who were honored to witness the military parade with President Xi Jinping on the Tian An Men Gate Tower, and to attend the later reception

As part of his endearing philosophy on development, Mr. Dhanin advocates the ‘3-Benefit Principle’ that reflects the leveraging of benefits to all stakeholders in a sustainable business enterprise, namely benefit to the country, the society and the company. He believes it to be CP’s guiding principle in its mission to be the “Kitchen of the World” to meet rising global demands for affordable quality foods.