Praneetsilpa Vacharapol

Praneetsilpa Vacharapol was born Praneetsilpa Thummanon on 24 October 1932. Her father was Chamnian Thummanon and her mother Lamai Thummanon, and she was one of nine children of the same parents.

On 5 March 1950 she married Kamphon Vacharaphol, who would go on to found the newspaper Thairath. They had three children: Yinglak Vacharapol, Sarawut Vacharaphol and Inthira Vacharapol.

She began working in newspapers alongside her husband when the couple were still establishing themselves, first with the daily Khao Phap and then with Siang Ang Thong, which was produced from an office in the Bang Lamphu area of Bangkok. Thai reports describe her role as finding advertising and running the business side of the operation, including administration, finances and accounts.

The first issue of Thairath went on sale on 25 December 1962 under Kamphon's leadership. The paper grew quickly, changed the shape of Thai print journalism and became the country's largest selling daily, eventually moving to its headquarters on Vibhavadi Rangsit Road. Throughout this period she continued to oversee internal management at Vacharaphol Company Limited, the paper's publisher.

After Kamphon's death on 21 February 1996 she became chairman of Vacharaphol Company Limited and director of Thairath, responsible for the overall direction and main policies of the Thairath Group from 1996 until her death. Under her chairmanship the family business expanded beyond print into television, with Thairath TV, and into online media, led by the next generation.

She also served as chairman of the Thairath Foundation, which oversees the budget and running of the 111 Thairath Witthaya schools around Thailand. She pushed for the creation of the Kamphon Vacharaphol Museum, opened in 2019, and when major floods or other disasters struck she led large numbers of staff in packing relief bags and sending truck convoys to affected areas.

She was married to Kamphon Vacharaphol for 46 years, from 1950 until his death in 1996, and Thairath staff regarded her as his partner through both hardship and success. She raised their three children while working long hours in the business. Staff from the pioneering years through to the present remembered her as a woman of few words, good hearted, always smiling and kind to employees at every level. She held the honorific title Khunying and lived in Soi Sukhothai 5, in the Dusit district of Bangkok.

Praneetsilpa Vacharapol died peacefully on the morning of 13 November 2026 at the age of 94. She had been treated for age related illness at Vichaiyut Hospital for some time, alternating with periods of rest at her home in Bangkok. Thairath announced her death the same day, calling it a great loss for the Thairath family.

A royally sponsored bathing rite was scheduled for Sunday 15 November 2026 on the ground floor of Building 1 of the Thairath newspaper on Vibhavadi Rangsit Road, followed by funeral chanting, with further chanting each evening until 1 December 2026. Her body was to be kept for 100 days awaiting a royally sponsored cremation.

Praneetsilpa Vacharapol is remembered as the co builder and later the head of Thairath, Thailand's leading newspaper group, which she guided for thirty years after her husband's death as it moved from print into television and digital media. Her charitable work through the Thairath Foundation, its network of 111 schools and the newspaper's disaster relief convoys formed a large part of her public life. Her honours included the Knight Grand Cross (First Class) of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant, the Knight Grand Cross (First Class) of the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand, the Order of Chula Chom Klao (Second Class) and the First Class of the Order of Direkgunabhorn.