Thaksin Shinawatra (Thai: ทักษิณ ชินวัตร, RTGS: Thaksin Chinnawat [tʰák.sǐn tɕʰīn.nā.wát] ; born 26 July 1949) is a Thai former politician, businessman, and police officer who served as the 23rd prime minister of Thailand from 2001 until his overthrow in 2006. Since 2009, he has also been a citizen of Montenegro.
Thaksin founded the mobile phone operator Advanced Info Service (AIS) and the telecommunications conglomerate Shin Corporation in 1987, making him one of the wealthiest individuals in Thailand. He founded the Thai Rak Thai Party (TRT) in 1998 and became prime minister following a landslide election victory in 2001. He was the first democratically elected prime minister of Thailand to serve a full term and was re-elected in 2005.
During his tenure, Thaksin launched a controversial "war on drugs" that resulted in over 2,000 extrajudicial killings, drawing widespread criticism from human rights organizations. His administration implemented major poverty-reduction programs, expanded infrastructure, and introduced universal healthcare coverage, while taking a strong-arm approach to the South Thailand insurgency.
In 2006, the tax-free sale of his family's shares in Shin Corporation sparked mass protests led by the People's Alliance for Democracy ("Yellow Shirts"), accusing him of corruption, abuse of power, and autocratic tendencies. Thaksin called a snap election in 2006 that was boycotted by opposition parties and subsequently invalidated by the Constitutional Court.
Thaksin was deposed in a military coup on 19 September 2006. His party was outlawed, and he was banned from political activity. He spent 15 years in self-imposed exile, during which he was convicted in absentia for abuse of power, and had his police rank revoked.
Despite residing abroad, Thaksin maintained strong political influence through successor parties such as the Pheu Thai Party and the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship ("Red Shirts"). His younger sister Yingluck Shinawatra served as prime minister from 2011 to 2014, and his daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra became prime minister in 2024.
During exile, Thaksin frequently communicated with supporters under the alias "Tony Woodsome" on platforms such as Clubhouse. He returned to Thailand on 22 August 2023, where he was taken into custody before later receiving a royal pardon and parole.
Thaksin's great-great-grandfather, Seng Saekhu (Khu Chun Seng 丘春盛), was an ethnic Chinese Hakka immigrant from Fengshun, Guangdong, China, who arrived in Siam in the 1860s and settled in Chiang Mai in 1908. His eldest son, Chiang Saekhu, was born in Chanthaburi in 1890 and married a local named Saeng Samana. Chiang's eldest son, Sak, adopted the Thai surname Shinawatra in 1938 because of the country's pro-Central Thai movement, and the rest of the family also adopted it. Seng Saekhu had made his fortune through tax farming. Chiang Saekhu/Shinawatra later founded Shinawatra Silks and then moved into finance, construction, and property development. Thaksin's father, Loet, was born in Chiang Mai in 1919 and married Yindi Ramingwong. Yindi's father, Charoen Ramingwong (born: Wang Chuan Cheng), was a Chinese Hakka immigrant who married Princess Chanthip na Chiangmai, a minor member of the Lanna (Chiang Mai) royalty.
In 1968, Loet Shinawatra entered politics and became an MP for Chiang Mai. Loet Shinawatra quit politics in 1976. He opened a coffee shop, grew oranges and flowers in Chiang Mai's San Kamphaeng District, and opened two cinemas, a gas station, and a car and motorcycle dealership. By the time Thaksin was born, the Shinawatra family was one of the richest and most influential families in Chiang Mai.
Thaksin Shinawatra was born in San Kamphaeng, Chiang Mai Province, and was raised in a Theravada Buddhist household. He lived in San Kamphaeng until the age of 15 before moving to Chiang Mai to attend Montfort College. At 16, he assisted in managing one of his father's cinemas, gaining early experience in business operations.
Thaksin married Potjaman Damapong in July 1976. They have one son, Panthongtae and two daughters, Pinthongtha and Paethongtarn. They divorced in 2008. Thaksin's youngest sister, Yingluck Shinawatra (Thai: ยิ่งลักษณ์ ชินวัตร; RTGS: yinglak chinnawat), is said to have entered politics in 2011 at her brother's request as leader of the pro-Thaksin Pheu Thai Party. She was later elected prime minister on 3 July 2011. Thaksin received a doctorate in criminology at Sam Houston State University.
Thaksin lectured at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of Mahidol University in 1979.
Thaksin was a member of the 10th class of the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School, and was then admitted to the Thai Police Cadet Academy. Graduating in 1973, he joined the Royal Thai Police. He received a master's degree in criminal justice from Eastern Kentucky University in the United States in 1975, and three years later was awarded a doctorate in criminal justice at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas.
Returning to Thailand, he reached the position of Deputy Superintendent of the Policy and Planning Sub-division, General Staff Division, Metropolitan Police Bureau, before resigning his commission in 1987 as a Police Lieutenant Colonel and leaving the police. His former wife, Potjaman Damapong, is the sister of Police General Priewpan Damapong and now uses her mother's maiden name.
He was a former university lecturer at the Royal Police Cadet Academy in 1975–1976.
Thaksin's police lieutenant colonel rank was revoked in September 2015.
Thaksin and his wife began several businesses while he was still in the police, including a silk shop, a cinema, and an apartment building. All were failures which left him over 50 million baht in debt, (£1 million). In 1982, he established ICSI. Using his police contacts, he leased computers to government agencies with modest success. However, later ventures in security systems (SOS) and public bus radio services (Bus Sound) all failed. In April 1986, he founded Advanced Info Service (AIS), which started as a computer rental business.
In 1987 Thaksin resigned from the police. He then marketed a romance drama called Baan Sai Thong, which became a popular success in theatres. In 1988, he joined Pacific Telesis to operate and market the PacLink pager service, a modest success, though Thaksin later sold his shares to establish his own paging company.