As a youngster, Adam had much more time with his mother than his father, who worked in the oil industry and was sent for lengthy stints of work all around the world to places as diverse as China, Saudi Arabia, India and Pakistan, at a time without the modern communications technology that we take for granted today. It was just a fact-of-life for young Adam that he might see his father for only a single month of the year. A hand-written letter to his father could take up to four weeks to reach him, so his father was hardworking and dedicated but also a distant figure at times. Adam’s mother, across many years, had dual roles to fill in parenting Adam and his younger brother. In retrospect and now as a parent himself, Adam is aware of the sacrifices his father made to provide for, and secure a good future for, his family but also the sacrifices his mother made moving to a new country with no friends and little spoken English. It will come as no surprise that Adam maintains a very close relationship with his mother Kanya, and has tried to lure her to live close by in Hua Hin on multiple occasions, but without success.

To call Adam results-oriented is an understatement, since for him, failure is a concept he doesn’t acknowledge, instead reframing any potential difficulty as a chance for further growth and learning. Adam’s chosen aphorism adorns the top of his FB page, stating, “If it’s not impossible, it’s too easy.” Throughout his life, Adam has set himself challenges and then been prepared to give his all to achieve them. He cites his mother as a huge inspiration in his charity endeavours. She is a cancer survivor who has taken on an advocacy role in her community, and it was her commitment to the well-being of others that motivated Adam’s first charity fundraiser, a Disco Ball he organised at the age of only 17, raising $10,000 in a single evening, with all proceeds going to the Make a Wish Foundation.

While most people who know Adam associate him with his successful business career and/or his charity work with Hua Hin Heroes, neither of these fields of achievement are as significant to Adam as his family; wife, Supansa and children, Roman and Aria. Raising happy, confident and intelligent children is Adam’s top priority. Adam has made it his task to enjoy daily breakfast with the kids, and despite the need as a business man to meet and dine with clients and business partners, Adam will not compromise his commitment to being part of his children’s bedtime routine every second night.

Adam admits that his wife is the stricter parent, but there are areas in which even he is not permissive. One is screen time. The family has a regular weekly movie night, but personal screen time for the children is a one hour treat at weekends, and is never allowed in social settings like a restaurant. Adam has had strangers approach his table to compliment the family on all being present during their meal out together. As a parent, Adam harbours strong concerns about the dangers of social media and screen usage by children. He is proud of the way his children interact with others in a positive, confident and inclusive fashion. Adam’s commitment to raising the children well is showing results with his son Roman, aged just eight, recently being sponsored by Singha on the Junior Golf Circuit.

While Hua Hin has proven fertile ground for many of Adam’s business ventures, it was the welfare of the children which was the impetus for the move from Bangkok to Hua Hin in 2020, during the covid era. The move was not just to try to avoid the pandemic but also to provide a cleaner environment which quickly helped ease Roman’s recurring skin irritations. In just a month, the whole family was happier.

In addition, Adam’s fondest childhood memories were of playing outdoors along the beach, near the ponds, lakes and marshlands near his home, building forts and trying to catch fish. This free, outdoor life was something Adam had a strong desire to provide for his own children and it was not available in Bangkok. So, having had a long-term vacation home in Hua Hin, Adam abandoned his musings of returning the family to the UK and took the tiny window available to exit Bangkok and embrace the gentler lifestyle of Hua Hin, which could be even better, according to Adam, if there was a master development plan for the city which included a beachside promenade.

Attending school in England had its difficulties. The brothers were two of the very few students at their junior school with an Asian heritage and darker skin, and so faced a certain amount of bullying and racial slurs which in Adam’s case were likely fuelled by jealousy of his academic and sporting achievements as well. Although naturally intelligent, Adam admits that his academic results were more the result of perspiration than inspiration; he worked hard and studied for every exam, afraid of letting his parents down. By the second half of his teen years, Adam found that his dark skin and hair colouring was not such a bad thing as he discovered girls and dating.

In high school Adam had the respect of school staff and students alike until a misadventure with an under-performing substitute teacher taught Adam a bitter lesson. He had words with the teacher and refused her demand to attend a fifth, extra exam-preparation lesson that week for the entire class when his father was due home. The teacher belittled him with the accusation of being a “daddy’s boy”, unaware of how precious time spent with his father was, and Adam reacted by criticising her efficacy as a teacher. The following Monday morning at assembly, Adam was announced as the school’s new Head Boy, only to be demoted the same day to Deputy Head upon complaint from the teacher. This turn of events was the first time in the school’s history and Adam was ruefully informed by the Principal that he had been left no option. 26 years after this event, Adam still defends his actions and the right to stand up for what he believes in, although his mother would say otherwise given the prestige, albeit short-lived of being the Grammar School head boy.

Upon graduation from school, Adam took the first available job to make money for a proposed travelling year. The job involved throwing vegetables onto a conveyor belt and Adam’s collegial approach to the job saw him promoted several times in quick succession, the boss unaware that Adam was not seeking a long-term career. After three months or so, Adam quit and headed to Asia with friends, with grand dreams but insufficient funds to bring them to fruition. The group “got stuck” in Thailand because it provided the most comfortable existence for the least outlay. It was while walking in a shopping mall that Adam’s “modelling career” began when he was approached by a talent scout who offered him the princely sum of 10,000 baht for a photo-shoot, a large boost to his rapidly depleting finances. Subsequently, Adam was offered a contract and spent three months sitting around waiting to be called for scenes in commercials and magazine shoots. Adam learnt what he certainly didn’t want to do for a career, while earning himself enough money to finish off his travels with a further three months of scuba diving before returning to university in the UK.

Adam started his Bachelor of Business and Marketing at the University of Leeds, where first-year students lived in residential accommodation on campus. Having established a group of friends, second year students were expected to live in rental accommodation within the local community. Adam’s response to this was the first concrete example of his ability to think outside the box in an entrepreneurial fashion. He determined he would become a landlord rather than a tenant. He took a student loan and supplemented it with a loan from his parents, so he had the deposit he needed to buy a property. The rent from his housemates would pay the mortgage and the interest he paid to his parents, as per the submitted business plan, and he lived rent-free. Finding the right property and the right housemates wasn’t easy, but Adam’s first real estate venture was a resounding success. He turned a nice profit when he sold the property a few years after his university graduation, setting himself on the road that has eventually led to his current investments in the restaurant, entertainment and property development industries.

It was Adam’s paternal grandmother who offered him a profound piece of advice days before her passing, advice which deeply impacted the course of his life.  Her wisdom was that, at the end, you’ll only regret what you didn’t do, words of encouragement when he was considering the move to Asia, a very different business environment to the UK. While he radiates self-confidence and positivity, Adam is prone to overthinking and sleeps less than ideally at times.  He has a brain which doesn’t readily switch off, especially when he is developing a new business idea. He placates his wife, who expresses concern that he takes on too many tasks simultaneously, with the thought that being addicted to work is better than most other things he could be addicted to.

Adam is a high-level strategist who plans, organises and then initiates what he terms “failure-proof” business and property development projects with an eye to longer-term success. He doesn’t just look to immediate expediency, but also to what is sustainable and ethical, as his reputation clearly matters to him, especially amongst his friends and family. Adam’s key skill in business lies in putting together partnerships and consortiums which allow him to take on large projects while effectively utilising the strengths of others, strengths which are different, but complementary to, his own. Even when a business partnership runs its course, there is never any acrimony and friendship remains. Adam has lots of friends and what they think of him and how he treats them is important to him.

Currently, Adam is involved in projects either in the pipeline or only recently opened. These include Les Amis French restaurant, Bar Tigre, the nightclub above it, and Raw Sushi & Sake in the same complex, targeted at the growing younger demographic in Hua Hin. Another strategic project is with Peter Hagstedt who opened Daddy Deli during Covid. Adam, former proprietor of The Lodge in Hin Lek Fai, was instrumental in forming a partnership, 18 months ago, with Daddy Deli. The group has gone from strength to strength and now encompass five venues including Harvest in the Hua Hin Health Park, Daddy Deli Beach House in Khao Tao, Daddy Deli Pattaya and now Taboo which will be relaunched as a gastro pub. Apparently in any industry there are economic efficiencies to be had in running multiple venues and the Daddy Deli group now benefits from a central office with full-time accounts, admin, marketing and purchasing. A great success story for what was a small Hua Hin restaurant 18 months ago. The group has even been made the strategic acquisition of Lawson Artisan Bakery, whose young owner makes delicious pastries and sourdough of local renown.

Adam’s “pet project” which he has been carefully nurturing across more than five years now, is the Health Park Residence, which is expected to break ground in the final quarter of 2026 and be completed in 2027. It is phase 2 of the Hua Hin Health Park development that has seen a new health precinct spring up at Black Mountain, with the BeWell satellite clinic, Spine Clinic, Harvest by Daddy Deli and Fairy Nails and Spa already in place to service those who move into the Residences. The Residences will be a community of 72 homes, from one to three bedrooms, which will allow independent yet fully assisted living for the elderly. It works on a rental rather than ownership model, different from anything currently available locally. With the full complement of health and living services already in place from a range of industry leaders, Adam is confident of being able to provide a wonderful lifestyle to new residents from Day 1 and as he says, there will be “no broken promises made in glossy brochures”, as all the facilities have been built and operational for many years.

For Adam, this is a clear example of long-term strategic planning. Not simply building a development, but carefully aligning the right partnerships and services around it to create a complete, real-world solution. As he often puts it, this is “chess, not checkers” and with Health Park Residence, Adam has spent years planning and building a one-of-a-kind offering to the vast retirement market in Hua Hin.

The last few years have seen Adam facing his own mortality after losing his best friend Johno to a brain tumor aged 42 and tackling his own medical scare that thankfully was a false alarm. As a consequence, Adam does not have a bucket-list because he has learnt to embrace every day with positivity and do what he desires, in the now. You’ll only regret what you didn’t do.