From party girl to property queen: Naphaporn ‘Lek’ Bodiratnangkura
She was once dubbed the ‘Paris Hilton of Thailand’. Now she’s the force behind Thailand’s exquisite new Aman hotel
WHEN AMAN NAI LERT BANGKOK opened in April, it was billed as one of Asia’s most ambitious hotel launches: a 36-storey tower with just 52 suites, 34 branded residences, a multi-floor wellness centre, and a pool terrace built around a century-old somphong tree.
Almost as talked-about as the hotel is its custodian, Naphaporn “Lek” Bodiratnangkura – a die-hard glamourpuss on the surface, a formidable businesswoman beneath.
Lek is the CEO of the Nai Lert Group, a Bangkok dynasty that began amassing wealth in the late 19th century through ice imports, buses and real estate innovation. Once dubbed the “Paris Hilton of Thailand”, she was known as a hard-partying socialite.
But now, at 44, she has reinvented herself as the driving force behind Aman’s new outpost, steering the multimillion-dollar project from blueprint to star-studded opening night.
“When I work, I work. When I party, I party,” she says matter-of-factly at the photo shoot and interview at Appetite, a restaurant-gallery-record lounge on Amoy Street. “I don’t like half measures. I don’t do mediocre.”
If that sounds like a sound bite tailored for a newspaper profile, it isn’t. It’s simply Lek being, well, Lek – poised, steely and unapologetically frank. To understand her, though, one must look back at the four-generation dynasty she inherited, a family empire that helped shape modern Bangkok.
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A succession of strong women
The Nai Lert story begins with Nai Lert Sreshthaputra, widely regarded as Bangkok’s first great real estate developer-entrepreneur. In the early 20th century, he introduced ice production to Thailand, launched one of the city’s first bus services, and built his family residence with sprawling gardens that would become Nai Lert Park, an enduring green sanctuary in Bangkok.
His only child, Thanpuying Lursakdi Sampatisiri, inherited his trailblazing spirit. She became Thailand’s first female transport minister, running the family empire with fierce resolve tempered by grace. “She had guts,” Lek recalls. “No bullshit. Direct, but never rude. She always made her point clear.”
Her granddaughter, Lek, spent her early 20s abroad, studying hospitality at the University of Surrey and fashion design at Parsons School of Design in New York. She enjoyed the nightlife a little too much, and freely admits to “being drunk” most of the time. The Thai press dubbed her “the Paris Hilton of Thailand”, and her romances and style choices became tabloid fodder.
But the champagne fizz didn’t last forever.
The turning point came when Lek’s formidable grandmother summoned her home with a deceptively simple question: “Did you party enough?” The Nai Lert Park Hotel was ending its management contract with Hilton International (now subsumed under Hilton Worldwide), and Lek was called to step into the business.
Lek began sitting in on her grandmother’s daily lunches, absorbing lessons not from textbooks but from anecdotes and razor-sharp one-liners. One thing her grandmother said stuck in her mind: “It is harder to be somebody than a nobody.” It was a rebuke and a benediction at the same time – but it catalysed Lek’s transformation, from tabloid socialite to CEO.
Trading sequins for spreadsheets
Leaving the party circuit for the boardroom, Lek focused on restructuring the Nai Lert Group into real estate, hospitality, education and cultural management. She launched the Ecole Ducasse Nai Lert Bangkok Studio to bring world-class culinary arts to Thailand, and founded the Nai Lert Butler Academy to raise service standards. She repositioned the family name from a heritage player to a global luxury contender.
The Aman Nai Lert Bangkok is the flagship of that reinvention. She chose the partnership with Aman, she says, because “the two identities had to echo each other”. Both brands are built on sanctuary, heritage and uncompromising quality.
The bet is that Bangkok can sustain another super-luxury entrant. According to property consultancy JLL, hotel investment in Thailand is projected to normalise at about 13 billion baht (S$526 million) in 2025, with luxury hotels outperforming other segments. Industry analysts put the hospitality market on a 5.9 per cent growth trajectory through 2032.
Meanwhile, Lek’s leadership style has been as distinctive as her wardrobe. She is hands-on to the point of obsession, refusing to outsource her vision to consultants. Her key performance indicators are unconventional: she tracks success not only by revenue, but also by returning guests. Her meetings with her teams are famously brisk – “bam, bam, bam,” she describes, clapping her hands.
She has reshaped not only Nai Lert but the public perception of her. “My party-girl days were just a phase. Now I’m centred on building something that will last another hundred years,” she says.
MBA from the School of Life
Lek now views those years of partying not as a waste but a kind of unofficial Master of Business Administration – a crash course on people and persuasion, in reading a room, and sensing who mattered. “When you’ve been on many stages,” she says, “you know what people want, and why they behave the way they do.”
Being dismissed as a society-page fixture turned out to be central to her journey. That constant exposure to every rung of society – from billionaires to bartenders – has given her a rare perspective that others lack. “The managers in suits and the dishwashers are the same to me,” she says. “But – if you do wear a suit, you’d better earn it.”
She is careful these days about what she reveals. So, she brushes off any questions about her love life. “I was too public before,” she admits.
For now, Aman Nai Lert is her passion project, a test of Nai Lert’s legacy and reinvention. If it succeeds, it proves that Bangkok can sustain not just another luxury entrant, but one rooted in Thai history and heritage.
And if it fails? Lek shrugs, with the nonchalance of someone who’s weathered more than her share of scandals. “There are only two kinds of problems,” she says. “Ones you can fix, and ones you can’t. We focus on the ones we can.”
The shrug is pure Lek – half challenge, half dismissal – but her words carry the weight of someone who knows she has big shoes to fill. As our conversation winds down, her tone shifts as she reaches back to memories of her grandmother.
“Whatever I’m doing right now, I hope it will last another hundred years,” she says. “I hope my great-grandchildren will say I honoured the past, but also had the courage to innovate. That I kept Nai Lert alive – not just as a monument, but as a movement.”
Photography: Darren Gabriel Leow
Fashion direction: CK
Hair: Grego Oh, using Revlon Professional
Make-up: Dily Wang, using Chanel
Location: Appetite at 72A Amoy Street
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