Although Winyou Chaiyawan, chief executive of Thai Credit Retail Bank (TCRB), has a hectic schedule steering his family business amid fierce competition, he has never abandoned his passion for writing.
Mr Winyou with a portrait of himself. He appreciates the various genres of the arts, including painting, writing and music.
Mr Winyou, 47, has written novels for a decade and two books have been published so far. His third book, of poetry, is in the pipeline. He has written a great deal of poetry in several kinds of Thai verse, telling tales of life, love, society, experience and surroundings.
"I can release feeling, temper, thought, experience and others through poetry," Mr Winyou says. "I like art, all genres of the arts -- painting, writing, music -- but I haven't mastered them and have never studied them. I'm addicted to art, and learning to do it. As for a poet, I'm still far from using this word."
The banker likes to spend non-business hours writing, admiring art and joining activities with his favourite artists and authors for work-life balance.
Mr Winyou, who enjoys keeping a low profile, is a son of Vanich Chaiyawan, a member of the Forbes list of Thai billionaires. The family business includes the third-largest life insurance firm by premiums, Thai Life Insurance, as well as Thai Asia Pacific Brewery and TCRB.
Before the 1997 financial crisis erupted, the Chaiyawan family owned two finance companies -- Thaimex Finance and Securities Co Ltd and Thanasap Finance and Securities Co Ltd -- but both were among 56 financial institutions that were closed.
After earning a Master of Business Administration from the UCLA Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles, Mr Winyou decided to work at international financial institutions instead of within the family empire as demanded by his father.
He started his career at SBC Warburg Dillon Read (since acquired by UBS) as an equity research analyst and then became an investment banker at JF Thanakom Securities (which morphed into JPMorgan Securities Thailand) before joining the family business in 2000.
At JPMorgan, he had responsibility for mergers/acquisitions, private equity investment, advisory and privatisation.
"After I pursued study overseas, I had no intention to work at firms within my family business, like a peasant child who studies in the city and doesn't want to come back home to be a farmer after graduation," Mr Winyou says.
In 2002, he headed the now-defunct Thai Cardif Life Assurance Co Ltd, where he pioneered the bancassurance business in Thailand via a joint venture of Thai Life Group and BNP Paribas Cardif, exclusively selling the products through TMB Bank.
At that time, the insurance industry relied largely on the agent channel.
"I'd recognised the potential of the business when I'd studied in the US," Mr Winyou says. "I thought there was a great opportunity for bancassurance business in the Thai market."
Apart from Thai Cardif, he took charge of the bancassurance business at Thai Life Insurance.
Two published books by Mr Winyou. Literature is the banker's lifelong passion.
He also took part in bringing Thai Keha Credit Foncier, of which the lion's share was held by the Chaiyawan family, into TCRB. The process was completed in 2007, and Mr Winyou took over the chief executive role five years later.
In the aftermath of the 1997 meltdown, the Bank of Thailand had a policy of letting financial firms upgrade to either universal or restricted banks.
"The BoT gave licences for both retail banking and full banking licences at that time, but we selected a retail banking licence because it required less capital," Mr Winyou says. "Most importantly, we didn't want to do corporate loans."
For the first five years after TCRB began operating, the bank focused on retail customers by offering the same products as other peer rivals and it suffered multi-million-baht net losses and high non-performing loans (NPLs) as coverage ratio remained below 100%.
After Mr Winyou took the helm, he changed the bank's position to microfinance, the area that commercial banks have avoided for fear of rising soured loans.
His strategy proved successful as the bank turned a corner one year after he took the reins.
As of last August, TCRB's total assets were 48.9 billion baht. Over the past five years, the bank's loan growth averaged 16% annually, with customer growth of 12% and income growth of 158%.
With the trend of physical branch closures worldwide, TRCB is bucking the movement by aggressively expanding its network to 209 branches at the end of last November from 132 at the end of 2017, 88 at the end of 2016 and 74 at the end of 2015.
"I don't take the success in turning the bank to profitability as a personal compliment, because it's an achievement of teamwork," Mr Winyou says. "My pride derives from my own achievements."
Martial arts study is one point of pride. Mr Winyou started learning aikido and judo when he was 30 and determinedly trained for 13 years until he received a black belt. Given that he began studying martial arts fairly late in life, he needed to put in greater effort and commitment than those who started at a young age.
After he achieved the black belt, he stopped practising and searched for new things. Insight meditation is his latest activity, but his busy schedule is an obstacle to continuous practice.
Insight meditation is a way to discover truth and understand life, Mr Winyou says, noting that knowledge typically derives from three sources: reading, thinking and direct experience.
"I can't figure out what I will get from insight meditation, but direct experience will tell me," he says. "For example, if you never go to the beach, you won't know how it is until you experience it yourself."