Advisor to TGGS Dean

Born in Chachoengsao, Thailand in 1941, Assoc. Prof. Dr. h. c. Banleng Sornil received his Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering in 1969 from Fachhochschule Cologne, Germany and Master of Technical Education in Mechanical Engineering in 1977 from King’s Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok. He has started his career as technical teacher in 1963 at North Bangkok Technical College, which later has been developed and known now as King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok (KMUTNB). Assoc. Prof. Dr. h. c. Banleng Sornil worked at KMUTNB in the field of technical education in mechanical engineering until his retirement in 2001. During his academic career at KMUTNB, he authored numerous technical text books, which have been considered as the foundation of technical education in mechanical engineering in Thailand. For the management career, he was appointed for numerous management positions, e.g. Head of Technical Education in Mechanical Engineering Department, Dean of Technical Education Faculty. He was also appointed as the president of KMUTNB during 1995-2001. Assoc. Prof. Dr. h. c. Banleng Sornil was one of the major contributors in establishing The Sirindhorn Thai-German Graduate School of Engineering founded in 2005 and he served as the Director of this institute during 2005-2011. In 2007, he received an honorary doctorate degree of engineering technology in design and manufacturing of machinery from KMUTNB. Currently, he has been appointed to TGGS Dean Advisor.

Born in London, England in 1944 Michael C. Usher served a five-year apprenticeship as a Design Draughtsman with parallel studies as a mechanical engineer at Kingston Technical College (now Surrey University).

Michael moved to Germany in 1970 to work as a design Engineer in the construction machinery industry where he went on to become Director, (with a full power of attorney), for a large international manufacturer, responsible for Export and Technical Product Development. During this time, he also successfully completed an MBA course. In his Management career, he facilitated numerous Management and Technical training courses for both German and International staff.

In the mid 1990`s Michael moved to Thailand providing Management and Training services for both Thai and International companies. He later joined the Thai-German Institute (TGI), a German-sponsored State-of-the-art equipped Engineering Vocational Educational Institute, as MD.

In 2007 Michael was engaged by RWTH Aachen University as Deputy German Director at TGGS, deputising for the German Professor in Aachen responsible for the TGGS project in KMUTNB.

After retiring from TGGS/ KMUTNB Michael continued providing some management training courses in Thailand and also became a Director of The Singapore-Thai Chamber of Commerce, as such he Joined the “Education and Skills committee” of The Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce Thailand (JFCCT) of which he is still an active member. Currently, Michael C. Usher has been appointed to “Advisor to the TGGS Dean”.