The daughter of Thailand's beer billionaire says she never doubted women belonged at the top

Thapanee Techajareonvikul, took the reins as CEO and President of Berli Jucker PCL in 2023, becoming the storied retail and packaging firm's first female chief executive. For Thapanee Techajareonvikul, the conviction that women belong in top leadership roles was never unusual. Her late mother, Wanna Sirivadhanabhakdi, was instrumental in building TCC Group into a multi-billion-dollar empire spanning beverages, property, retail and manufacturing, with holdings including Chang beer and Singapore-listed Fraser & Neave . Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, her father, ensured his two sons and three daughters received equal opportunities within the family business. Today, each sibling oversees a different part of the empire. Thapanee, the couple's fourth child and youngest daughter, took the reins as CEO and President of Berli Jucker PCL in 2023, becoming the storied retail and packaging firm's first female chief executive. The company's portfolio includes Big C, Thailand's second-largest hypermarket chain, with operations in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Hong Kong. "When I became a female leader, I didn't feel any nervousness," she said during a special recording of CNBC Meets: Legacies, held at a UOB private banking event in Singapore. "I always saw Mom right there with Dad, at the front of the long table," the MIT and Harvard Business School graduate told CNBC's Tania Bryer. …