Managing Director Resigns

Anita Horton has resigned as managing director for health reasons and has taken a leave of absence from the foundation for six to twelve months. She remains on the board of directors. Before she left she fortunately was active in the search for and hiring of those who will be replacing her.

Anita has lived in Thailand for twenty years. She first came to Nang Rong about ten years ago and worked in village development and education. Shortly after she started there my youngest son came from the U.S. with several others on a mission trip to help out in the village. He liked it so much that he had to go back the next year. Sue and I met Anita shortly after that and have been good friends since. Much of what the foundation is comes from Anita’s vision. This has grown from her experiences here in what has been one of the more forgotten parts of Thailand.

While she has degrees from MIT, has worked for the Sloan Institute and been chief advisor to and consultant for various educational and governmental councils in Thailand and Southeast Asia, what has always impressed me about Anita was something else. She knows everybody. She knows and is on friendly terms with the mayor, the governor, his wife, and so on. Do you need to speak to the minister of education for Thailand? For Cambodia? How about the director for disease surveillance for the Mekong sub region? She has worked with so many governments in this area at so many levels that it’s tough to figure out who she does not know. If you walk with her down the street in Nang Rong she stops and asks the woman recycling the garbage how her children have been. She has known her for years.

One person, even Anita, cannot start a foundation like this. On the other hand, if you get Anita together with a few of her friends, it really was not so hard.

As I mentioned, Anita remains on the board of directors and still advises the foundation management via phone and email. If I’m lucky, I may get her to contribute to this blog as well:)

Categories: What's new Tags:
  1. No comments yet.
  1. No trackbacks yet.