Throughout her 40-year worklife, Charlotte Donavanik has not once turned down an opportunity. She loves and embraces challenges.
Early last year, on reaching retirement age, she was approached by Thippaporn Ahriyavraromp, the youngest daughter of Dhanin Chearavanont, Thailand's richest person and senior chairman of Charoen Pokphand Group, to join DTGO Corporation as an adviser for marketing and branding.
DTGO was founded by Ms Thippaporn in 1993. It is a holding company with various businesses including property development, commerce and technology, design and construction, finance and investment, plus entertainment and communications.
"Every job depends on how much we pay attention to it. Everything is possible," she says. "I've never turned down job offers or assignments. I never think about which jobs have value and which don't. Every job has value which we can create."
After graduating in accounting, Ms Charlotte worked with Pricewaterhouse as an auditor for five years.
She then moved to Citibank, where she worked in various areas, including loans, marketing, risk management, collection and also set up a call centre, a new concept to the banking sector at the time.
However, it was at the Bank of Ayudhya -- or Krungsri Bank -- where she discovered her hidden talents, changing communications between one of the most conservative organisations and its consumers.
"I was involved with branding and communications in the post-financial crisis, which was a difficult time for Thai banks," she recalled that time in 1997, when she moved from Ayudhya Investment and Trust to join the Bank of Ayudhya.
"After the bank finished solving its non-performing loans, it was the time to be aggressive in the banking business, which faced a change in landscape, from corporate to retail banking, driven by foreign banks," she added.
At the time, the Bank of Ayudhya's brand colour was brown, which was perceived as old in the view of consumers. To refresh it, Ms Charlotte added yellow to the brand and the brown duly faded away in the course of time.
Ms Charlotte also persuaded Paradorn Srichaphan, Thailand's all-time top professional tennis player, to be the "PR face" of the bank. Again, she was a pioneer in the bank's use of a VIP presenter.
As soon as Paradorn became famous, she approached him, met him and made an offer by herself in order to swiftly close the deal before other agencies or brands had a chance to contact him. The Bank of Ayudhya then became widely recognised, an outstanding name in the banking sector, and it remains so today.
This success also brought her new jobs in the entertainment business, including Media of Medias and BBTV Production, the operator of Channel 7, whose owners are the same as the yellow bank's.
At Channel 7, she initiated many TV programmes, particularly related to news reporting and edutainment programmes. She was also one of the organisers of a TV beauty contest -- Miss Universe 2005 -- and was influential in K-pop star Rain's first concert in Thailand.
In 2011, Thapana Sirivadhanabhakdi, president and chief executive of Thai Beverage, asked her to join his company as vice president of corporate communications.
During her time at ThaiBev, she initiated a variety edutainment TV programme, AEC Mee Tang Ruay, broadcast during 2014-16 on MCOT, with ThaiBev as a sponsor, and was a co-host with Kobsak Pootrakul for Bangkok Bank.
She also started a community wellbeing TV programme Caravan Samran Jai, Community Tourism (joyful caravan, local tourism) which has been aired every Saturday on Thai TV Channel 3 HD since 2017, with Bangkok Bank the main sponsor.
The show promotes local tourism and helps communities develop sustainable, quality services that benefit the local economy and shares experts' advice on product and service development.
"The companies I worked for -- Krungsri Bank, Channel 7, ThaiBev and now DTGO -- are all driven by humble owners," she says. "Each firm I was asked to join came to a point that they needed changes."
At 63 years old, Ms Charlotte is still active and uses every major social network apps: Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok and Twitter.
She has more than 67,800 followers on Twitter. The highest retweets she recorded were more than 70,000.
She recently signed up for a new social network app, Clubhouse, where she will share communications tips and discuss the importance of communications.
"I believe in giving -- giving and expecting nothing in return," she says. "One day in the future it will come back and it will be greater. Honesty, sincerity and frankness are my mottos."