He will start work in Phuket on Monday.
Gov Maitri served in Phayao for just a year, having previously been governor of Trang Province for two years.
The new governor received a BSc and MSc in political science from Thammasat University. In 1989, he attended District Chief School.
In 2,000, he completed a course in Advanced Senior Administration and in 2006-7 he studied at the Kingdom’s Defence College.
He started his career in government at the National Security Council, serving 10 years in policy and planning, eventually becoming Secretary to the Council. He also served in the Secretariat of the Prime Minister’s Office, as chief of the Parliamentary Section, Internal Affairs, and as Chief Secretary.
He then transferred to the Interior Ministry, where he started as secretary to the ministry’s Permanent Secretary. He then went on to serve successively as chief of the Provincial Office staff in Ubon Rachathani, Chaiyapoom, and Pitsanulok provinces, all positions attached to the office of the Interior Ministry’s Permanent Secretary.
The new governor has also been Secretary of the Department of Administration and vice chancellor of the Administrative College, Department of Administration; director of Studies and Planning, Administration Department; and director of the Office of Policy and Planning, Interior Ministry Permanent Secretary’s Office.
In 2003 Gov Maitri was appointed vice-governor of Phang-nga, and in 2005, vice-governor of Nakorn Sri Thammarat. He also was appointed chief of the Interior Ministry Permanent Secretary’s Office to Overcome Drugs, and the Centre to Defeat Poverty.
In 2007, he became vice-governor first of Lopburi, then of Srisaket Province in the Northeast. In 2008 he was shuffled back to Lopburi as vice-governor, and in 2009 received his first posting as governor, in Trang.
Phuket’s new “provincial father” has been strongly identified with drug interdiction and grassroots development.