Graeme Killen

An Australian retiree who is tough minded but generous and kind hearted. Graeme served in the Australian Army as a young man and then worked as an oil rigger for years. He served as Harbormaster at the Royal Perth Yacht Club annex at Freemantle, Australia during the 1987 World Cup title defense race. He later commenced a life of sailing around the world but was charmed by Thailand when he arrived and eventually settled in, living on his boat in the harbor at Nam Kem for 9 years. Two months before the Tsunami, he sold his boat and started to renovate his lady's (Pon) house. Selling the boat was a sad acknowledgment of time having taken a toll on his ability to live a life at large on the sea... but it also saved his life as he would have been moored on the water just off shore at the time the Tsunami struck. He is honest and straight forward and happens to have a lot of accumulated knowledge of building boats. He has energy and is also able to incorporate other people's ideas and suggestions into the operation as it develops. He is an excellent choice for director of this project.

Saijer Ketkliang (Pon)

A hard-working and generous Thai woman who lived at Nam Kem Village. Her house was damaged by the Tsunami and her son's house was completely destroyed. Now she's living in the temporary shelter camp at Nam Kem Temple. She's active locally and straight-forward, but also has great compassion to help people in trouble. She has good contacts and relationships with most of the surviving town people. She possesses brilliant strategic thinking abilities and knows what to do next, how to do it with minimal effort and she has a valuable appreciation for the significance of subtle details. She can accomplish many tasks quickly and effectively. She and Graeme have been together for 9 years. She is the right person to organize with the Thai people since she knows the culture, speaks Thai, and makes a great team with Graeme.