Phuriphat Dejsuphong (James) - Customer Obsessed; Community-building Growth Hacker.
Hey, this is me, James. I was born in June 1982 in Bangkok, Thailand. I studied at Virginia Tech, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Business, and currently studying Master of Business Administration at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
I was a principal curator and organizer of the first TEDx event in Thailand, TEDxBKK, in 2010, and a principal organizer until 2014. I collaborated with the United States Department of State's TechCamp Thailand 2012 as Co-Facilitator and served on the Organizing Committee of every Barcamp Bangkok until 2018. During these times, I co-founded and ran a small software company (Ready Office, a tailor-made CRM software house, and Nettree Data Center) while actively engaged in the local startup community.
My time in politics includes serving as an assistant to Member of the House of Representatives Anik Amranand between 2011-2013; she was a Deputy Chairperson of the Energy Committee during that period.
My startup experiences include working in full-time management positions for Uber, Gojek, and OYO. All Decacorn with a valuation of over usd$10 billion.
I have had my fair share in journalism, and my byline can be found in my Muckrack Profile.
My hobbies include Ham Radio (Callsign E23PHO/N7DEJ - Extra Class License) and listening to podcasts (Planet Money, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, This American Life, Startup, Serial, Radiolab, to name a few). I have an 11-year-old Toy Poodle named Santa's Little Helper (and her Twitter account).
I also volunteer at Make-A-Wish Foundation, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), as well as volunteer as Cyber Security Trainer by providing hands-on training to activists, journalists, civil society organizations, and human rights defenders in Southeast Asia, such as Amnesty International, and designing digital security and data protection training curricula and learning processes for high-risk individuals and organizations combined with technological, legal, and societal aspects. I also volunteer at Foundation for Internet and Civic Culture. (OONI Profile Page) and help with the localization of the TechSoup Project.
I am a journalist member of the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières; RSF), Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Free Software Foundation (FSF, since 2005), and a Student Affiliate Member of AICPA (American Institute of CPA).
You can contact me via email at me aat james d0t wiki, or keybase.io/phuriphat; my PGP public key can be found here.
My Twitter handle is: @underexpose, and my LinkedIn profile is here.