I recently undertook an assignment for The University of North Texas and photographed high-profile Thai businessman Charn Uswachoke at his home on the outskirts of Bangkok. Known in Thailand as Mr Chips, Charn is the Chief Executive and Founder of Alphatec Electronics PCL after buying the Signetics chip manufacturing arm of Philips of Holland back in the 1980s. The Alphatec group is behind one of the world’s biggest start-ups, Submicron Technology, a chip fabricator intended to build state-of-the-art 64 Mbit memory chips and other devices. In the late 1990′s it was believed Charn Uswachoke owned 10% of the world’s semiconductor market.
His most recent news grabbing headline was the large donation he gave to his old university in Texas, USA, in fact the largest single donation the university has ever received of US$22 million. He enjoyed his time at The University of North Texas so much that every year he also funds 150 scholarships for over-seas students believing that the universities future should focus on its expansion overseas especially in Asia.
