The rump of the Thai Cabinet left after the Constitution Court ruled that PM Yingluck and nine of her most senior aides must step down, elected Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan, Minister of Commerce and one of two remaining Deputy Prime Ministers, to head the caretaker government.
Mr Niwattumrong Srinakarintrawirot University and a master's in Computer Sciences from Chulalongkorn University.
He has long had close ties to the Shinawatra family.
According to the Thai Wikipedia entry about him, he worked his way up through IBM Thailand for 14 years before joining Shinawatra Computers and Telecommunications in 1990.
From 1993 to 1995 he was President of Shinawatra Computer and Communications PLC.
He served as the Chairman of the Executive Committee-Media and Advertising Business of Shin Corp, and as Vice Chairman of the Group Executive Committee from 2000.
In 2001 he was appointed chairman of the ITV television channel (now Thai PBS) after it was bought by Shin Corp.
In 2006, having sold all his shares in Shin Corp, he quit the group after it had been bought out by Temasek of Singapore, and then – after the military coup that ousted Thaksin Shinawatra from power and sent him into the exile that continues to this day – Mr Niwattumrong embarked on three years of Dharma study at a wat in Lamphun.
Emerging from the temple, he was included in the Pheu Thai party list in time for the elections of 2011 that brought Yingluck Shinawatra to power.
She appointed him Minister for the Prime Minister’s Office and then, in June last year, he became one of her Deputy Prime Ministers and Minister of Commerce.
The other remaining Deputy PM, Phongthep Thepkanjana, made the announcement of the election result.
Reputed to be the richest person in the Cabinet, with declared assets of B3 billion in August last year, Mr Phongthep will continue as Deputy PM.