Cherdchai Chaivaivid is Director-General of the Department of International Economic Affairs of Thailand since 2019. He has served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand for almost 30 years. Prior to this current appointment, he had served as Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission at the Royal Thai Embassy in Tokyo, Japan, from 2017-2019, and Director of East Asia Division IV at the Department of East Asian Affairs, from 2012-2017. His previous tenure as diplomatic agent includes Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 1997-2001, and Ottawa, Canada, from 2009-2012. Since joining the Foreign Service in 1994, and up to taking up the current position, Cherdchai had spent the entire of his career focusing on bilateral relations, having engaged in Thailand’s foreign policy towards South Asian nations, Malaysia, Myanmar, Viet Nam and Japan. He has been awarded with the Knight Grand Cordon (First Class) of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant and the Knight Grand Cordon (First Class) of the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Chulalongkorn University and Master of Arts in International Relations from the University of Kent at Canterbury, United Kingdom.