Boonchai Bencharongkul (, born 25 June 1954) is a Thai millionaire business executive and art collector. He is the founder and chairman of

DTAC Total Access Communication Public Company Limited (commonly known as DTAC, and stylized as DTAC or dtac) is a GSM mobile phone company in Thailand. It is the nation's third largest GSM phone company, after Advanced Info Service, AIS and TrueMove ...

, Thailand's third-largest mobile phone operator. The eldest of four children, Boonchai was brought into the family business by his father Suchin, who had built the business by partnering with

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

. Boonchai was 27 when his father died in 1981, leaving him the business as well as a lot of debt amid numerous lawsuits. He eventually persevered, closing down and offloading some branches of the business, and shifted its focus to the growing telecommunications industry. The business boomed, but was badly affected by the

1997 Asian financial crisis The 1997 Asian financial crisis gripped much of East Asia, East and Southeast Asia during the late 1990s. The crisis began in Thailand in July 1997 before spreading to several other countries with a ripple effect, raising fears of a worldwide eco ...

. Boonchai then turned to partnership with Norway-based

Telenor Telenor ASA ( or ) is a Norwegian majority state-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations worldwi ...

. He and his three siblings sold most of their shares in 2005, though he has remained as the company's chairman. Boonchai has long had an interest in art, and is an avid art collector, owning one of the largest private collections in Thailand. In 2012, he built the

Museum of Contemporary Art Museum of Contemporary Art (often abbreviated to MCA, MoCA or MOCA) may refer to: Africa * Museum of Contemporary Art (Tangier), Morocco, officially le Galerie d'Art Contemporain Mohamed Drissi Asia East Asia * Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai ...

in Bangkok to showcase his collection. Personally, he is a follower of the

Dhammakaya movement The Dhammakaya tradition or Dhammakaya movement (sometimes spelled Thammakaai) is a Thai Buddhist tradition founded by Luang Pu Sodh Candasaro in the early 20th century. It is associated with several temples descended from Wat Paknam Bhasich ...

—he found that Buddhism and meditation had helped him through his father's death and the financial crisis. He married his sixth wife, actress

Bongkoj Khongmalai Bongkoj Khongmalai (; ), nickname "Tak" (; born 15 April 1985), is a Thai actress, model and producer. Career Films she has appeared in include ''Tom-Yum-Goong''. She portrayed a young Thai woman forced into prostitution in Australia who comes ...

, in 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bencharongkul, Boonchai

Boonchai Bencharongkul Boonchai Bencharongkul (, born 25 June 1954) is a Thai millionaire business executive and art collector. He is the founder and chairman of DTAC, Thailand's third-largest mobile phone operator. The eldest of four children, Boonchai was brought in ...

1954 births Living people Place of birth missing (living people)