William Heinecke - Biography

Biography

Born in 1949, Heinecke moved to Bangkok in 1963 with his family, having previously been based in Japan, Hong Kong and Malaysia. His father served for 25 years in the US military, through two wars, and later joined the foreign service. His mother worked as an Asia correspondent for Time magazine. Heinecke became a student at the International School Bangkok and persuaded the editor of Bangkok World to let him write a weekly column on go-carting, in exchange for the advertisement space alongside.

At the age of 17, Heinecke took over from the Bangkok World's advertising manager while still attending high school. By the time he graduated a year later, he had founded Inter-Asian Enterprise to supply office cleaning services, and Inter-Asian Publicity, a radio advertising company, with around US$1,200 he had borrowed. The latter he later sold off to Ogilvy & Mather and, in 1967, founded Minor Holdings that would grow into The Minor Group over the next four decades, spanning more than 30 companies. In 1968, Heinecke married and subsequently had two children.

Heinecke had his first hotel venture in 1978, the Royal Garden Resort in Pattaya. His business ventures have included advertising agencies and other hotels in Bangkok, Hua Hin, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai as well as outside of Thailand. He also introduced American-style fast foods to Thailand in the late 70’s and 80’s – brands like Mister Donut, The Pizza Company and Burger King. In 1991, Heinecke became a Thai citizen. He was the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand and sat on the Prime Minister’s Foreign Investment Advisory Council. He is a supporter of the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre. He authored The Entrepreneur, which has been translated into a number of languages.