Lursakdi Sampatisiri

Seeing the coming of refrigeration, Lursakdi shifted her focus to transport. Unfortunately and suddenly, in 1975, the carefully planned expansion of the transport business was swept away overnight by the chaos of Thai politics. After the government nationalized the Bangkok bus companies, which included the family run White Bus Company, Lursakdi, then Khunying Lursakdi, was invited by Thanin Kraivichien, appointed Prime Minister by Royal Decree of King Rama IX on 8 October 1976, to join his cabinet as Minister of Transport thus making her the first female Minister in a Thai Government.

When Sampatisiri was a young woman (1930s), her father sent her to Japan, because he predicted that economic power would be centered there in her generation. She could only attend a college as Japanese universities did not accept women at that time. When she returned to Thailand, her father send her to work for the Office of Civil Servants Commission to find out how the Government worked. After three years of Government service, she returned to the family business, living, as she describes herself, a "life of privilege, rather than family duty, within Thailand's small economic elite" even though she had many responsibilities as sole heir.

In 1930, she married Khun Binich Sampatisiri, who himself came from a prestigious background of public service. His father, Srisena Sampatisiri, served as ambassador to Japan and other countries in the 1930s and 1940s and was Thailand's Foreign Minister from 1944 to 1945, after which he served as Minister of Interior in the 14th Thai Cabinet. Khun Binich, himself, served as the Chief of the Traditional Arts Division of the Department of Fine Arts at the Ministry of Education for The Royal Thai Government and was a frequent host to overseas visitors and celebrities, being known for his sense of hospitality and entertainment (US comic Joey Adams mentions his encounter with Khun Binich in his book On The Road for Uncle Sam).

Thanpuying Lursakdi Sampatisiri (20 February 1919 – 9 November 2010; Thai: เลอศักดิ์ สมบัติศิริ; RTGS: Loesak Sombatsiri; Thai pronunciation: [lɤːsàk sǒmbàtsìrì]) was the daughter of Nai Lert Sreshthaputa and the only heir of the business and real estate empire, founded in 1894, known as Nai Lert Group. As one of Thailand's most prominent businesswomen, Sampatisiri created one of the first international hotels in Bangkok, The Hilton International Bangkok at Lert Park. Since 2003 the hotel was known as Swissôtel Nai Lert Park Hotel, Bangkok, and was the flagship of the real estate portfolio of the group. After been sold in 2016 it is since 2018 a Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts as they reopened the property as a "holistic services medical centre" resort hotel.