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James Firth (British)
Managing Director - EAST (Phuket)
James has been working in the Asian furniture industry for over 10 years now.
Having started in India, researching the industry and getting a foothold exporting outdoor furniture to the United Kingdom, he then moved to Bangkok in 1999 and joined a large manufacturing company, Maxialto Furniture Industries. Setting up and managing factories in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Ratchaburi, Rayong and the surrounding provinces of Bangkok.
Over the following years he marketed these furniture factories worldwide, exporting fine furniture to some of the largest furniture companies in Italy, USA, Korea and Australia. At the same time, he ventured into the southern Chinese furniture industry expanding the company's production capacity by using select Chinese manufacturing plants to support their ever growing sales orders.
Early in 2003, James facilitated the expansion of Maxialto into the American furniture market, by setting up a joint venture in San Francisco distributing mid-century modern furniture nationwide. Focal points in this sector being the major cities of Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Miami. American Modern Furniture Inc. became the vehicle for distribution of modern furniture manufactured by Maxialto in Thailand and China.
In 2005, with the dominance of the Thai furniture industry waning in the face of serious competition from China and Vietnam, James had to make a decision as to whether continue to expand in China and shut down operations in Thailand, meaning relocating to China, or refocus his furniture manufacturing and marketing skills on the local market.
In agreement with his wife that moving their 2 young children, both born in Thailand, to mainland China would not be in their best interests, they decided to stay and look at opportunities locally.
James now puts his vast manufacturing and marketing skills to good use in the booming property development market in Thailand.
Peter Brown (British)
Production Manager - EAST (Phuket)
Peter has a long history of working in extremely diverse sectors in the field of carpentry.
With over 34 years experience he is extremely adept at working within such a flexible industry as here in Thailand.
After studying at Stroud Technical College in the United Kingdom during the 1970's, followed by a carpentry apprenticeship in Israel, Peter then returned to courses at the West Sussex College of Art and Design, then the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA).
After completing 6 years of training in 1978, Peter started his first full time employment building stage sets with Flint Scenery Company, including projects such as Evita and other west end productions for The National theatre, The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Old Vic and The Barbican.
He returned to the Flint Scenery Company for a second period in 1982, but not before 2 years as a tutor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA) teaching in construction of in house productions.
Working with so many different production companies gave Peter the chance to tour and work all over the world, including Argentina, Turkey, Egypt, Cyprus and Israel. He also toured almost every country in Europe building sets for trade shows and exhibitions for the likes of Ford, Fiat, IBM, The Royal Agricultural Show and the Frankfurt Book Show amongst others.
Arriving in Thailand in 1995, Peter set up a small wooden products factory located in Nakhon Ratchasima. through this channel he supported a lot of local factories in various fields of manufacturing; aviation industry, sofa parts, automobile industry and a vast array of decorative crafts.
With a background like this, it is easy to see why Peter was always going to be the man EAST went to when looking for a foreign production manager to head the manufacturing arm of the group.
Glenn Murphy (British)
Upholstery Manager - EAST (Phuket)
Born in Swindon (UK), Glenn started his upholstery apprenticeship in 1971 at Lesden's Upholstery. learning the trade from experienced upholsterers and working on projects that not only involved loose furniture and re-upholstery, but on large projects for hotels, bars and restaurants.
After due consideration, Glenn took an offer from family members, resident in California, to join a company called Upholstery and Design based in Santa Barbara, CA.
This diversified his skill base as it involved upholstering contracts for the large aviation companies building aircraft for commercial use. Along with the aviation industry, the company catered for large contracts in the automobile industry, including cars, buses and luxury coaches.
After 7 years with this company and an extended skill base, Glenn took another move to expand his horizons. This time to the other side of the globe in Australia. An opportunity arose for a position with Peter Craig Interiors in Sydney, which was too good to refuse. This was dedicated to the field of most interest to Glenn within the upholstery industry, antique furniture. Glenn spent over 2 years with this company before a move back to the United States was offered, another fantastic opportunity.
This time it was in Las Vegas, Nevada, with the largest hotel & casino group on the strip, the MGM Grand Group.
As one of the lead in-house upholsterers, Glenn was overseeing re-upholstery programs for the MGM's 6,000 rooms, restaurants with seating for 1,500 and the whole gaming sector of the casinos.
Upholstery jobs entailed loose and fitted furniture within the hotel rooms and restaurants, and also covered the whole gaming section, recovering, not only the furniture in these areas, but also the gaming tables and pool tables.
Having gained US citizenship and worked through a 10 year contract with the MGM until 2007, a new challenge was necessary and Glenn was recommended to EAST to lead our upholstery division in Thailand. His previous knowledge of Thailand, having spent numerous years holidaying here in his spare time, meant that he already had the working knowledge of the country, it's people and the culture, pivotal to being a success in Thailand.
Once offered the contract he jumped at the opportunity to set up a new upholstery division within our framework.
Craig Paterson (British)
Interior Design Consultant
Craig Paterson attended Art college in Canterbury, England before graduating from Brighton University in Interior Architecture.
During this tenure Craig was awarded the New Designer of the Year award for retail, based on a project he did for a concept for a restaurant.
Not long after graduation, Craig had the opportunity of his first move to South EAST Asia, by taking a contract with Davenport Campbell working on the Petronas Twin Tower site.
After the contract ended, Craig returned to London and joined the design firm Hosker, Moore and Kent. Focusing primarily on retail design his projects included Selfridges and Nokia.
Craig then moved into a freelance position, working in art direction on commercials, pop promos and short films for heavy weight clients such as Nike, Heineken and Channel 5.
In 2004 Craig decide he needed to return to his passion and founded his own design company Simply Space, which provides a wide range of services to the property market, from floor plans to interior design,
Building a close relationship with all of his clients, he assisted property developers throughout the design process, working on projects from single dwellings through to multiple unit developments.
Craig joined the EAST team as an Interior Design Consultant in the latter part of 2008 and has already shown his tremendous eye for design on 2 exclusive projects.
David Whelan (American)
Consultant
David started his own furniture design and fabrication firm in Stinson
Beach, California way back in 1972.
Spending more than 30 years building his company, Whelan Designs, David has
a vast range of exclusive projects in his portfolio, mainly catering for the
rich and famous living in the more affluent areas of California.
He started out with the interior fabrication of the Heifer Law Offices in
the Rand McNally building on Sansome Street, San Francisco before taking on
his first major project in 1976.
This entailed working for 4 years on a private residence in Bolinas, CA.,
for famous Attorney & Photographer, Paul Kayfetz. The work involved not only
joinery for the entire estate but also the construction of an in-house
aviary, Jacuzz suite and law office.
The quality of craftsmanship became so well known as to be published in
international magazines Interni, an Italian living magazine, and Journal De
La Maison, a French magazine.
After completing this project he moved onto commercial design, again in
Bolinas, for Smiley's Schooner Saloon, a famous and well hidden enclave of
artists, writers, musicians and fishermen.
David then spent the next 2 decades working on various projects around
northern California, but predominantly on another private residence for Bill
and Betty-Ann Carlin in Sausalito. Unfortunately, at the clients request,
the excellent craftsmanship involved over such a long period of time was not
granted publication. Had it been possible the residence would have surely
made every international magazine in the world.
From 1993, David's group started working on properties for the more well
known elite in the state.
From Danny Goldstein, close friends with the Clinton's, in Berkeley to Sid
Ganis, President of The Academy Awards and ex-Vice President of Columbia
Pictures, where David spent 4 years working on his 2 residences in Bolinas
and Berkeley.
In fact, Bolton House in Berkeley was originally designed and built by
architect William Knowles in 1899.
In between this time, David spent a period of time, on construction and
interior work, on Mankas Inverness Lodge, Boathouse & Restaurant, a
favorite retreat for such stars as Martha Stewart, Brad Pitt, Robert
Redford, Prince Charles and the Coen Brothers.
Moving through the late 90's, David was the designer & fabricator for the
Hills Residence in Napa, California.
This 17th Century property was bought, through auction, from De Young Museum
and was featured in a book entitled Napa Valley Style published by Rizzoli
Publishing.
A few more residential projects followed before David received a call from
South East Asia to help consult with a large export project for Maxialto who
were fabricating high end solid wood furniture for Marks & Spencer
department store in the UK.
It was at this time that David first met James Firth, and after returning to
San Francisco for 2 years, was recalled to his present position as a
consultant for EAST Furniture & Interiors.
Nithi Thongmanee (Thai)
Managing Director – EAST (Chiang Mai)
At 25 years old, Nithi is the youngest member of EAST group. His family originate from Chiang Mai, however his father took a major decision to migrate to Newcastle, Australia for a better education for his 3 children. The move to Australia in 1995 meant Nithi spent 11 years in the Australian education system. 7 years of that time were also spent gaining management experience in the family retailing & wholesaling business, distributing lights his father manufactured at their factory in southern China before exporting to Australia. Clients included Davie Jones, Harvey Norman, Freedom Furniture and many, many more.
Through this cross-cultural experience Nithi understands both the Thai and Western cultures very well.
This stood him in great stead for a return to Thailand in 2005, thinking there were many more possibilities for him to explore his passion for furniture.
After only being back in Thailand for a very short period of time, a chance meeting lead to a position with a furniture retail outfit on the tropical island of Koh Samui as a marketing manager, realising his dream of working in furniture and interior design. However, Not enjoying the island life, and with the help of the partners of what was then called Beautiful World, Nithi engineered the opportunity of a return to Chiang Mai to open the northern branch, before the rebranding of the group under the EAST label, focusing on natural & synthetic woven furniture products.
Simon Hall
Managing Director – EAST (Pattaya)
Simon started out his career after studying business studies in County Durham in the North East of England back in 1991, his first job was to see him spend 5 years working for a designer clothes store in Newcastle, Simon quickly picked up the basics of all aspects of retail such as store management, warehousing and distribution, stock control and then finally buying. After 5 years ‘up north’ he finally made the move to London where he worked for several large blue chip companies such as Debenhams, Marks and Spencers and T.K. Maxx in various different buying and Merchandising roles covering Menswear, footwear then finally Home Furnishings in 2002.
After one bad day at the office Simon then decided enough was enough so gave up his job, sold his car and motorbike, rented out his London apartment and disembarked on a one year trip of South East Asia and Australia. After working for a year in Australia, Simon ran out of money and managed to get himself a job encompassing two of his major fortes, retail management and scuba diving, he then went on to manage retail dive shops in The Cayman Islands, (British West Indies) for a further 3 years until he came back to Asia and chose Thailand as a place to settle, he then joined the Beautiful World Directors back in 2006, since buying out his original partner and recently re-branding to EAST in February of 2009. Having had so much experience in retail buying, Simon knows the far east very well with links to a lot of factories in China, Indonesia and other parts of Asia.
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