Petite, bubbly and with a flawless complexion, the Thai-born, US-educated Singapore permanent resident has always been a mover and shaker.

Her father is a self-made man who had three thriving travel businesses by the time he was 29; her mother is a homemaker.

Hoping to give her a headstart in life, her parents sent the elder of their two children to study in Los Angeles when she was just nine years old.

It was a shock for her.

"They told me I was going to Disneyland, but I never got to go back to Thailand until three years later," she says. "I had no friends, could not speak English, and had to live with an aunt I'd never met."

Already in the third grade when she left her private school in Bangkok, she had to go back to kindergarten in Los Angeles.

Fortunately, she caught up quickly and was placed in the fourth grade the following year. Her younger brother joined her there too.

Three years later, their parents decided to bring the siblings home to Thailand, only to uproot them all to the US again soon after.

"Between kindergarten and eighth grade, I changed schools eight times," she says. "I think that gave me the ability to make friends very easily. I had to if I didn't want to always be a loner, or the new kid in class."

A high-achiever, she studied hospitality management at Cornell Hotel School and did her internships in Bangkok, with Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel and public relations firm Ogilvy & Mather.

"I looked Asian but was very American. I was honest, even blunt. Initially, a lot of people didn't like it. My boss at the hotel had to call me in and tell me to tone down. He'd tell me, 'We don't say this, you can't say that, and we say this in a certain way'."

Initially riled, she soon realised that choosing to do her internship in Thailand was the right thing.

"I learnt so much. An Ivy League education imbues you with a sense of entitlement. You think you know it all but, really, you don't.

"You need to come into the real world and have real-life professionals tell you that this is the real world and that what you learn in school does not always apply," says Ms Kositchotitana.

After graduating in 1998, she landed a job with the CSC Consulting Group, a Forbes Global 2000 multinational which offers IT and professional services.

She moved up swiftly. At 24, she had done well enough to buy herself a three-bedroom townhouse and a BMW. At 26, she became the youngest in the firm to be made senior consultant and was on track to becoming a partner at 30.

But success came at a price. She had to call it quits with a Singaporean she dated for six months because her work took up all her time.

"I didn't have a life. I didn't date. I couldn't date, no one would date me," she says with a grimace.

"I bought the house because I needed a tax shelter and I had no time to spend my money."