Mrs. Busaya Mathelin was confirmed by the Royal Thai Government on 17 August 2016 as the first female Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand.

     Mrs. Mathelin began her career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1986 at the Department of Political Affairs. She worked at the Department of International Organizations before her first overseas assignment at the Royal Thai Embassy in Paris from 1991 to 1995.

     From 1995 to 2000, Mrs. Mathelin worked at the Office of the Permanent Secretary, moving on to the Office of the Secretary to the Minister, the Department of Information, and the Department of Economic Affairs.

From 2000 to 2005, she served as Minister-Counsellor at the Royal Thai Embassy in Rabat, and then as Director of Division 1 at the Department of European Affairs.

     From 2005 to 2010, Mrs. Mathelin served as Deputy Director-General at the Department of International Organizations and Minister at the Royal Thai Embassy in London, before being promoted Director-General of the Department of European Affairs.

     Mrs. Mathelin has held three ambassadorial posts. She was Ambassador to Senegal from 2012 to 2013, Ambassador to Spain from 2013 to 2015, and Ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg and Head of Thai Mission to the European Union from 2015 to September 2016.

     Mrs. Mathelin was decorated with the Grand Cross of the Order of the Civil Merit, Kingdom of Spain in 2016, and Commander of the Order of Orange-Nassau, Kingdom of the Netherlands in 2004.

     A graduate of Chulalongkorn University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in French (First Class Honour, Gold Medal), she later obtained two Masters of Arts in Political Science and in Asian Studies from the University of Michigan in the United States.

     Mrs. Mathelin is married to Mr. Laurent Mathelin, a French national. The couple has no children.