Thor Hattaiwat Pusanti counts himself lucky to have started his career during the dot-com bubble in the late nineties when investors pumped money into Internet-based startups hoping to find the next gold mine.  

He spent the first few years of his career working for an e-commerce solutions startup that shaped his professional attitude and outlook in life. He recalls an incident from that time which made a significant impact on him. Thor was working on a website project for a client of the firm and the client was unhappy with the result. When the client gave him negative feedback, it impacted his morale. However, in hindsight, he realised he could have approached the project differently, by engaging the client proactively throughout the process and ensuring he was aligned with the expectations of the client, all along.  

Thor considers this as his first valuable career lesson – always be proactive and deliver your best work whether the project is big or small. When his first job didn’t take off as expected, Thor was determined that his next career move would be somewhere he could learn new skills and grow. 

In 2003, Thor joined the QI Group direct selling subsidiary, QNET, as a software engineer and was one of only a handful of people in the very young IT department. He was involved in everything from maintaining the front end of the e-Commerce website to designing and developing user interfaces, testing and debugging website code, and anything else that needed to be done, given the lean team. Thor’s dedication and determination to bring the best to the table did not go unrecognised and over time it enabled him to climb up the ranks to his current position as QNET’s Head of IT Applications.

He reflects on this growth, which he says was made possible by his team and colleagues around the globe.

“Everyone here works towards a common goal of valuing customer satisfaction above all else. The collective drive to deliver solutions that meet or exceed customer expectations and requirements is always there,” says Thor.  

This proved to be a huge boon when Thor faced one of his biggest professional challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

As more people shifted to online purchases, QNET’s e-commerce portal experienced a significant increase in demand and traffic, putting pressure on IT systems and resources. To cope with increased demand, Thor and his IT solutions team accelerated migrating core web applications to larger capacity support servers. No easy feat as they had to do this without disrupting ongoing services or compromising the quality of deliverables to the customer, all while working remotely. 

Thor’s recent successes also include spearheading a complex three-year QI Group IT transformation project that involved migrating all work applications and services to the cloud, as well as re-architecting applications to take advantage of cloud-native technologies such as serverless computing. 

Through all these challenges, Thor’s willingness to go above and beyond and his constant drive to learn new things and create a positive working environment for his team serve as a huge motivation to his peers.  

It came as no surprise to those who’ve worked with him when Thor was named the QI Hero in 2022. This is an accolade given to only select staff based on cross functional nomination and voting, for their exemplary service to the company and for living by our core values of service, leadership, sustainability, and integrity.  

Despite the award serving as a testimony to his accomplishments and impact, Thor remains adamant that he is no hero without his team and dedicates the award to his colleagues.  

As he celebrates a milestone 20 years of service with the QI Group this year, he looks back with gratitude for all the guidance our Founders, his supervisors, and peers gave him to grow personally and professionally. 

Thor never wants to lose his zest for learning and innovation, as he hopes to be able to mentor and inspire the next generation of QI’s bright minds in the IT team, for the next 25 years to come.

Thor Hattaiwat Pusanti is a Head of IT Applications and is based in Thailand.