Sarinee Achavanuntakul

Co-Founder, Sal Forest

Industry : Advocacy

Sarinee is a prolific writer, translator, researcher who “builds bridges with words”, and is a sustainable business advocate. An economics graduate from Harvard, she earned a master’s in business administration from New York University, and worked in investment banking for almost a decade–her last position being executive director of Hunter Advisory Ltd–before committing herself to being a writer and researcher. Her alter ego is “Fringer”, the name of her blog, which developed into several columns and books on the topic of sustainable development, sustainable business and social finance. She also co-founded the Thai Netizen Network under the Foundation for Internet and Civic Culture that advocates for digital rights and civil liberties, Open Worlds Publishing, Salt Publishing and ThaiPublica online investigative news agency, amongst others. In 2013, she co-founded Sal Forest, Thailand’s first “sustainable business accelerator” which aims to jumpstart and sustain a public discourse on sustainable business via events, print and online media, as well as conducting research on important sustainability issues in Thailand and social impact assessment. This goal is to help transition Thailand’s business environment towards authentic responsible development. Her leisure time is devoted to boardgames, books, food and travel, not necessarily in that order.