Pita Limjaroenrat

Profile Overview

Pita Limjaroenrat (Thai: พิธา ลิ้มเจริญรัตน์, RTGS: Phitha Limcharoenrat [pʰí(ʔ).tʰāː lím.tɕā.rɤ̄ːn.rát] ; born 5 September 1980), nicknamed Tim (Thai: ทิม, RTGS: Thim), is a Thai businessman and former politician who served as Leader of the Move Forward Party, the de facto successor to the dissolved Future Forward Party, from 2020 to 2023, and then as the advisory chair of the party from 2023 to 2024. He was also a member of the House of Representatives from 2019 to 2024.
Educated in New Zealand, Pita studied finance in Thailand. He further studied politics and business in the United States, having received various scholarships. Upon his return to Thailand in 2005, he took over his family's rice bran oil company and helped it gain its foothold. After obtaining a master's degree in the US, he continued his work in business. In 2019, Pita was approached by the pro-democracy Future Forward Party to be a party-list candidate for the 2019 general election. He accepted and ultimately won a seat in the House of Representatives. Upon the dissolution of Future Forward in 2020, Pita was selected to lead the newly formed Move Forward Party.
Pita led Move Forward to become the largest party in the 2023 general election, winning 151 seats. Forming a coalition with fellow pro-democracy parties, he announced plans to be elected prime minister of Thailand. In the first round of parliamentary voting on 13 July 2023, he was not elected by the National Assembly, as he lacked the votes from the Senate. Later, on 19 July, he was suspended as an MP by the Constitutional Court over shares in the defunct broadcaster iTV. Pita's second nomination on the same day was blocked by the National Assembly.
Move Forward ultimately joined the opposition following a dispute with their initial coalition partner, Pheu Thai Party. Pita resigned as leader of Move Forward in September 2023. He was succeeded by Chaithawat Tulathon, but remained active in the party. On 24 January, the Constitutional Court cleared him of wrongdoing, securing his status as a member of the House of Representatives. On 7 August 2024, more than a year after the general election, the Move Forward Party was disbanded by the Constitutional Court in a ruling that banned Pita and other party executives from politics for ten years. He subsequently supported and became a member of the reincarnation of Move Forward, the People's Party. Later that month, he began a fellowship at Harvard Kennedy School of Harvard University.