THE LAST OF THE EASTERN PLAYBOYS

       We were in quite a rush to make the appointment for a photo shoot of Thanop Eiamamornpan - more commonly known as Mark. He was wearing a magnificent timepiece that had to be flown back to Singapore urgently.
       After the photo shoot the timepiece came right off his wrist and was placed inside a security case and put on a plane.
       In between shots, the former man-about-town talked amiably about his new image.
       The 34-year-old is less of a party animal these days. He is happily married to Navipa, 29, and has a 20-month-old daughter, Namon. She will soon have a younger sibling as Navida is four months pregnant.
       Many people know Mark as the heir to the family-owned Frank's Jewelry, an upscale watch boutique which bears the name of his father.
       "Now I help overlook the family business by giving advice. I help with the business plan for new brands and products. For instance, today before we did the photo shoot, I was helping to negotiate a product to market in the future."
       The watch that Mark wore for the photo shoot was a famous upmarket Swiss brand he is negotiating to bring to Thailand.
       Mark's transition into the family business wasn't all plain sailing. His father was forced to fire him when he returned from studying abroad. "I was too aggressive and my dad couldn't handle me," Mark explained.
       His father gave him a dose of reality by finding him a blue-collar job, which he worked at for six months.
       "My father sent me to be a trainee at ThaiNamthip Limited, where I delivered cases of Coca-Cola, because he wanted me to learn that in life nothing comes easy."
       Mark says he learned the intended lesson - that he was indeed born fortunate and daily survival is a struggle for people in Thailand surviving on the minimum wage.
       "This makes me want to live a better life. Imagine eating boat noodles at the Peninsula Plaza. It costs 250 baht per bowl, which is equal to the daily wages of many people."
       After the delivery job, Mark landed a job at AJF Asset Management, a joint venture between the Bank of Ayudhya and JP Morgan, where he was involved in private and investment banking. He was a star performer and developed his own method to deal with clients.
       "Within a year I pulled in about 2.5 billion baht and I was only 24 years old," said Mark.
       Mark cemented his name in the financial field and the Stock Exchange of Thailand asked him to host a television programme called SET in the City, offering consumer-friendly advice on investment. He hosted the show, which has been on the air almost a decade, for four years.
       Since then, he has been a TV spokesperson and a guest lecturer at schools, universities and financial institutions.
       But his life may have turned out differently if not for the intervention of his father at a formative age. As a 12-year-old he was in trouble at Eagle Brooks, a junior high school in Massachusetts in the United States. "I was punching the teachers," Mark confessed.
       His father sent him to the Institute Le Rosey in Switzerland, where he was mentored by a family friend and member of the famed Piaget family which makes the prestigious watch brand of the same name.
       Mark next went to Florida to obtain his bachelor's degree at Lynn University with a major in marketing.
       "My father wanted me to have exposure to different countries. In Florida, I got an 'A' in beach volleyball. I took a class in advanced golfing and did very well. Other than that, I rarely went to class.
       "Once I took my economics professor out for lunch. My friends and I were 18, and the professor was in his 40s. We had some vodka shots. My friends and I came back to the exam room and waited, ready to take the exam. The professor couldn't come back to give the exam because he was too drunk."
       Now Mark is in the process of writing his second book, after a successful first effort - Hai Ngern Tum Ngarn (Let Your Money Work for You). It's been on the bestseller list for a long time, with more than 170,000 copies printed. "The book is about asset allocation, basically about how to make your money work for you in different ways."
       His second book, which doesn't have a title yet, will also be about financial advice. "It will be about the global economy and the meltdown, what caused it, the effect it has, how it affects you individually and new ways of doing businesses. It's going to be similar to the first one, and it's certainly going to be easy to understand."
       Anyone who knows Mark knows his passion has always been motorcycles.
       "I enjoy speed machines or anything that can go fast without supplying my own power or energy. Perhaps you can call me lazy. When I was young, I used to collect the allowance that my parents gave me, and when they were gone for one week to Singapore, I secretly bought my very first motorcycle, a Honda CBR 400."
       On the first day he owned the motorcycle he took a nasty fall, but still managed to keep a hot date, albeit covered in blood.
       "My date ended up cleaning the blood for me and we are best friends up to this day. After we ate she took me to the hospital. Well, the lady came first."
       His favourite bike today is a 1963 BMW R27, and he's also very fond of his limited edition Ducati 996 SPS.
       "It's a real racing bike that you only need to add a few things to make it street legal," said Mark.
       His third bike is a gift from his wife, a Sachs 150CC, which he has modified with a nitrous oxide booster. "This bike is for city use," said Mark.
       He acknowledged that married life has been very good for him. "I still party, but now that we've got a kid, I have to party with more responsibility. I go home no later than midnight. I also drive my family back home from their grandmother's house every evening after I finish work so that we all can go home together."
       Instead of going out, most nights Mark watches movies with his wife. He calls it "their time" - every evening after his daughter goes to sleep.
       "We watch movies together until we both fall asleep," said Mark, who added that he fell in love with Navipa at first sight, but she never gave him the time of day because of his playboy reputation. But later she saw how well he treated her and decided to give him a chance.
       "After a few months, I asked her to marry me because I was ready to settle down.
       "Whereas before I used to get drunk every night, now I hit the gym every day at the Polo Club," he said.