Noppadon Pattama

Noppadon Pattama (born April 23, 1961), Thai politician, became Foreign Minister of Thailand on 6 February 2008, in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej. He is a member of Samak's People's Power Party. He is a former legal adviser to Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed as Prime Minister by the September 2006 military coup.

Noppadon was born in Nakhon Ratchasima and educated at Thammasat University, Bangkok, where he graduated top of his class in law in 1982 and won a Fulbright scholarship to study in the United States. After receiving a prestigious Ananda Mahidol Scholarship, however, he chose instead to study at the University of London (LLM 1990) and the University of Oxford (MA 1992). He was President of Thai Students’ Association in Britain 1988-1989. While in Britain he met Chuan Leekpai, leader of the Democrat Party, who became his political patron.

Returning to Thailand, Noppadon practised law in Bangkok and became Chuan's secretary during his period as Leader of the Opposition in 1995-97. He was elected as a Democrat Party Member of Parliament in 1996. He was a member of the Parliament of Thailand's Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs from 1996, and when Chuan became Prime Minister in 1997 he became an influential figure. He was Parliamentary Secretary to Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan in 1999-2001.

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