Page 26 - MASALA LITE ISSUE 78 | MARCH 2017

26 IN FOCUS

Making a
Difference

Siddharth Ratnaswamy has risen high in the
international corporate world. His career path
began under the wise tutelage of teachers at
Ruamrudee International School (RIS) in Min Buri.

BY DAVID HARIMAN

During his academic years at Ruamrudee International School (RIS), Siddharth
Ratnaswamy says he was part of a large and caring family. Upon graduating in 1998, he left
with a conscientious desire to give back to society. The school helped shape his ideals and
gave him freedom to choose what he wanted to do with his life. He also learned to respect
others, while at the same time maintaining the capacity to challenge the status quo. The
Head of Business Intelligence and Decision Analysis at J.P. Morgan Asset is currently living
in New York City, and itโ€™s no doubt that his future aspirations were formed throughout his
educational pursuits, for he wants to be remembered as a man who leaves the world a
better place.

What was your overall experience like at RIS? social causes and the very fact that RIS is the product โ€œ...I still spend most of
My recollection of my overall experience at RIS was of a Roman Catholic religious order known as the my days wondering what
a positive one. I remember feeling like I was part of Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. These all good I am doing for
a larger and caring family. To be honest, I didnโ€™t fully contribute to a social mission for which the school is society. I am aware of the
appreciate the school while I was there. Like many famous. Now, two decades later, I still spend most of inconvenient truth that I
youths of my age at the time, I took it for granted my days wondering what good I am doing for society. am not doing nearly enough
because I did not know any di๏ฌ€erent. Looking back I am aware of the inconvenient truth that I am not and that I better plan on
and understanding how other organisations with over doing nearly enough, and that I better plan on retiring retiring early to balance out
2,000 members are run, I am struck by how RIS always early to balance out the karmic scales. the karmic scales.โ€
was able to maintain its close-knit and familial feel. Did the school have any in๏ฌ‚uence on your career
What were the major lessons you learned from choices later on? What did you wish you had learned at RIS that
the school? It helped shape my thought processes more than it did would have helped your career?
If I were to distill the one lasting e๏ฌ€ect RIS had on me, my career choices โ€” more on how I did my work, rather That being respectful as well as being assertive are not
it has to be that it left me with an indelible conscience. than what I did. mutually exclusive, and that respecting authority and
Having spent 12 years at that school, the responsibility What was your fondest memory of your time challenging the status quo donโ€™t have to be either.
to give back to society was prevalent โ€” part of the at RIS?
schoolโ€™s DNA. This was integral, as were visits to an There are so many fond memories, including If you had to go back in time, is there anything you
AIDS hospice, an orphanage, fundraising for various the assembly we had every morning where would have done di๏ฌ€erently?
announcements were made, followed by the Lordโ€™s Let me know if youโ€™ve got a way to go back in time and
prayer and the schoolโ€™s national anthem. Iโ€™ll give you a well thought-out answer.
What were your favourite subjects back then?
Any subject was my favourite besides math โ€” Any words for the current graduating class?
although my math teacher was one of my favourites. I Per aspera ad astra โ€” a Latin phrase meaning: through
was able to separate the person from the subject and hardships to the stars, anything less and you are
not hold the latter against the former. shortchanging yourself.
How much are you in contact with other RIS
alumni?
Not as much as I should.
How did your experience at RIS help you discover
what you wanted to pursue at university?
My time at RIS was more about how I approached what I
wanted to pursue. From a young age, we were comfortable
in both local and international contexts, as well as multi-
cultural settings. So I didnโ€™t feel like there was much
outside my scope of possibility. In a sense, RIS gave me the
freedom to choose and pursue what I wanted.

Did your education impart any qualities that are What are your future ambitions?
essential to your current job? To be an 80 year-old man some day and look back at
It imparted qualities that are essential to my living as myself and say, โ€œYou were a good man. You made the
a person โ€” the ability to look at oneโ€™s self in the mirror people who loved you proud. You left the world in a
every morning. better place than when you came into it.โ€

MASALA LITE ISSUE 78 MARCH 2017