Bangkok Post : The man who makes dreams come true

As the elevator pinged open onto the 18th floor of the KPN building, I was ushered into a lavish meeting room, where on the table lay the handsome features of Korn Narongdej on the glossy covers of a number of magazines. The CEO of KPN Lifestyle, a property unit of the KPN Group, was once a presenter for Pepsi Max and Nivea for Men. Though his career focus is now out of the limelight, the media still clamours for his presence.

The KPN building belongs to Korn's family, and its title is an acronym for the names of his parents, Kasem and Khunying Phorntip Narongdej. The family was ranked by Forbes magazine as Thailand's 28th richest in 2008.

Mr Korn, the youngest of three brothers, was on time on the day of our interview, courteous and good-looking as always. However, the 31-year-old businessman looked a tad tired because of his newest position as CEO of the 2009 KPN Singing Awards, which keeps him constantly on the move.

The family has been organising the singing contest for 26 years, since 1983, when it was called the Nissan Music Awards. Previous winners include superstars Thongchai "Bird" McIntyre and Tata Young.

"Ours is the only singing contest in which the winner receives a royal trophy from His Majesty the King. This is my first year involved with the family project. What I'm doing to this year's contest is to spice it up, and I'm changing a lot of it," said Mr Korn.

Previously, only the last day of the singing contest was aired on TV, and contestants were selected based on demo tapes. This year, Mr Korn is going out to select contestants at live auditions nationwide.

"I believe there are many good singers out there. They don't need recording studios to make their voices better. If you are good, we will come to you."

Live performances by the finalists will be televised on Channel 9 for 10 Saturdays, from Dec 12 2009 to Feb 6 2010. The contestants will be supplied trainers and coaches, and the shows will feature a weekly theme, guest judges and a popular vote.

Besides the highly coveted royal trophy, the winner will release an album under a new record label created especially for them and receive one million baht in cash.

"I've never done anything this difficult before in my life. This project requires a lot of money. When I have meetings with sponsors, they see my enormous efforts and how I'm adapting to make the contest more modern, so they give me support. There are many things I never knew before, so I'm starting from zero. Usually I don't listen much even to Thai music, but recently I flew to Korea to watch one of their biggest concerts, called Dream Concert 2009, featuring 20 artists. I wanted to see their production, execution and techniques and how they utilise their banners onstage."

On weekends, he goes outside Bangkok to see contestants audition live. "I want to see which audition parts look good on camera for airing," he explained.

KPN has a subsidiary company called KPN Music, which owns a record label with popular artists such as ETC and Dunk Phunkorn. The middle Narongdej brother, Nop, heads that company, which also operates KPN Music Academy, a franchise of music schools, and Guts Entertainment, which produces a variety of TV programmes.

The oldest brother, Kris, is CEO of KPN Holdings. "He takes care of all KPN's investments, financial assets, land, banks, charities/foundations and more. If we want money, we go to him," said the youngest brother with a chuckle.

As for his role as CEO of the property company KPN Lifestyle, Mr Korn has already proved his skill by building The Cadogan condominium on Sukhumvit 39, which sold out within two months without even a model or a catalogue for buyers to look at. His second project, Vincente on Sukhumvit Soi 49, was launched in February and has only two units left. He is in the process of negotiating a third project.

Mr Korn has a master's degree in human resource management from the London School of Economics, and later took a six-month course in interior design at Inchbald School of Design in the UK. After he came back to Thailand, his father suggested he enter the real estate business, which was booming at the time.

His business instincts come from both sides of the family. His mother won the prestigious international award, Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World, in 1998. He recalled: "Ever since I was little, my mother would take me with her to sit in meetings abroad. It was like learning by doing. I am very proud of my mother because she has always balanced her time well. She is very efficient professionally, but at the same time she always helped me with my homework no matter how tired she was from work."

Why is this eligible bachelor still single? "It's not that I don't want to get married. I will if I find the right one. I just feel that marriage is sacred and can happen only once.

"In the past, I used to have many criteria in choosing a girlfriend. For instance, she's got to be pretty, dress well, have nice legs, speak fluent English, enjoy travelling, be able to rough it sometimes, get along with my parents and not be demanding, annoying or naive. Now I just want someone I can feel comfortable with."

The heartthrob keeps girls swooning after him by taking care of himself and taking it easy.

"I'm not a stressful person. If something does stress me, I'll forget about it after a good night's sleep. I also go to the gym and take private muay Thai classes."

If you see him somewhere and happen to have met him before, do say hello. "People tend think that I'm a snob, when in fact I just have a very bad memory. Sometimes I really don't remember having met someone before," he confessed.

In his free time, Mr Korn enjoys playing with his nieces and nephews. "I don't generally like children, but I love my brothers' kids. One of my duties is to discipline them, because their grandparents never give them a hard time," he said. Nevertheless, the kids are very much attached to their beloved uncle.

But who will be the lucky bride to claim and start a family with the youngest brother? That will be the day when many women's hearts are broken.

Relate Search: Korn Narongdej, Kasem and Khunying Phorntip Narongdej, Forbes magazine as Thailand