On 11 April, Ms. Pongtip Thesapu, Communications Director for Unilever Thai Trading Limited, paid an exploratory visit to AIT to discuss possibilities for multiple forms of cooperation between Unilever and AIT. Ms. Pongtip was received by Dr. Pritam Shrestha, Head of ERCO, who gave a presentation of AIT programs and activities and later escorted Ms. Pongtip on a short tour of the AITCommunitySchool. During a series of meetings, she also met with Mrs. Shidevi Shrikant Deshpande from the AITCommunitySchool, Dr. Rian Beise-Zee, Acting Associate Dean, School of Management, and Ann V. Lopez-Fontanilla, Head of Students, and representatives of AITCareerCenter. During the course of the meetings, Ms. Pongtip expressed interest in AIT’s food engineering and bioprocess technology Field of Study, specifically with regard to Bio-waste as a way to assist Unilever’s Thai contracted onion growers in Chiang Mai. Another area of interest to Unilever is the integrated carbon dioxide reduction strategies research conducted at AIT. Also discussed were details of Unilever possibly funding a school playground facility as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) program. Ideas were floated for Unilever’s active participating at AIT’s student recruitment fairs, and the AITCareerCenter team made a plan to visit Unilever in the near future in this regard. There were many exploratory ideas expressed in the meeting, such as possibilities for marketing internships, sponsoring of a business research competition and the possibility of Unilever’s participation at the CSR-Asia Summit to be hosted by AIT in November of this year.
