[1] Supachai studied in primary and secondary education at Saint Gabriel's College and Triam Udom Suksa School.

[1] In 1973, he completed his doctoral dissertation under supervision of Professor Jan Tinbergen, the first Nobel laureate in economics.

In 1986 Supachai Panitchpakdi was appointed as Thailand's Deputy Minister of Finance, but when parliament was dissolved in 1988 he left politics and became president of Thai Military Bank.

On 22 July 1999 he was elected to become Director-General of the World Trade Organization, sharing the post with Mike Moore when a decision could not be reached.

[3] In March 2005 he was appointed Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) following his term at the WTO, a post he took up in late-2005.