Describing himself as empathic, tenacious and family-oriented, Damien believes that if you start something, you have to finish it.  He is a firm believer in karma, and on the sales side of his business, aims to match people with available properties.  He is firm in his commitment not to be a “sales shark”, because he is genuinely interested in the welfare of his customers, and jealously guards the fine, upstanding reputation his business holds.  Word-of-mouth recommendations drive his business at least as much as Damien’s activity on social media.

Damien actually has two A-teams, and he is perhaps even more proud of the second one, his family.  Without hesitation, Damien states that his family is his greatest life achievement. He first met his wife, Weaw, ten years ago now while on holiday in Ko Samui, the pair have been married for eight years and they are proud parents of two boys and a girl, aged eight, four and one. Damien affectionately calls his wife Kiddo, and the family unit’s needs are always at the front of Damien’s mind.  He always knew he wanted to leave Belgium to seek his fortune elsewhere, and had hoped for three children. Now, as the sole bread-winner of his family, Damien faces the costs of raising and educating three children. He takes his family responsibilities very seriously indeed and works long hours to ensure everyone’s needs are met. Damien finds satisfaction in knowing that his mother is extremely proud of the great husband and father he has become, in a new country and culture.

Damien was born in Belgium and lived in small village, Court-St-Etienne, south of Brussels.  His father, now passed away, was an American who worked as a manager for Pepsi while his mother, a French-speaking Belgian, worked in the accounting department of an import/export company. So, Damien’s native tongue is French, although he also speaks perfect English and very acceptable Thai.  Certainly, on the telephone, he is often mistaken for a Thai, and obtaining Thai nationality and relinquishing his American citizenship is something that is currently in the pipeline for Damien, who has made Thailand his firm and forever home. Damien has an older sister and two younger half-sisters. His parents separated when he was just six years old, and his father returned to America, but still had a solid relationship with Damien until his passing eight years ago. Damien would like to be able to visit his American relatives more often. 

Damien was not an easy kid to parent, being both very independent-minded and rebellious.  He was very sport-oriented as a child and teenager and his favourite was rollerblading, which was then at the peak of fashion. Damien was a sponsored champion of the sport and from the age of 12, took part in competitions, learning a raft of acrobatic moves and tricks, and gaining himself a broken collar-bone as well as a dislocated knee and fractured wrist along with his trophies and medals.  Damien did wear protective gear, but obviously not enough for the moves he was trying to perfect. Another favourite pastime was learning circus skills such as clowning, juggling and riding a unicycle.

In the classroom, Damien was considered a little different, as the kid with an American father.  His academic progress was fine, despite the fact that he put in only a small amount of effort, finding the work easy. He had a pleasant demeanour and was generally well-liked by the teachers. While at university, he often skipped lectures to ensure he had more sporting time, but his grades did not suffer unduly and he graduated with a Bachelor of Multimedia, majoring in project management, and then a Masters degree in Public Relations.  During this time, Damien was playing the system, receiving social support but also accepting cash-in-hand jobs to support himself.  He worked casually tending a bar, and also had an evening job, delivering photos, which saw him make a 400km round trip each time. Damien even spent 12 months in America with his dad, after graduation, only to realise his future was not there, either.

Damien first visited Thailand on holiday 15 years ago, and enjoyed it immensely. Still living in Belgium, he won a design contest, for which he received free rent on a largish space in Brussels for a year.  Damien’s vision was to turn it into an art gallery, with t-shirts and bags imported from Thailand and artists in residence, and so bring affordable art to the people, at the same time as organising cultural events.  It was a case of trying to turn something he loved into a viable business, but despite being able to secure a €20,000 grant to start the business, Damien didn’t have a proper business plan and so the business failed to thrive.  His was not the only one, with the period in the early 2000s being a particularly hard time, politically and economically for people of his generation in Belgium.  This crystalised Damien’s determination to leave Belgium. So, Damien took an accredited TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) course and arrived in Thailand seeking a job as an English teacher, in his early 30s.

The Thai entrepreneur had big ideas, and a big budget to match, and so Siam MilSim was born.  Basically running an army simulation game, using BB guns, the company went through various stages and ideas under Damien’s leadership. It garnered quite a reputation, with groups of young men even flying in from Malaysia to take part. Competitors were suited up in elaborate and expensive costumes, taught the basics of their weapons, then allowed to engage in warfare, on a site off Soi 94 which now homes ATVs. At one point, hunting dinosaurs was added to the mix, and later, at an abandoned hotel site near Cham-am, after dark, participants faced the zombie apocalypse. Damien’s commitment to the project ran some 18 months until after his firstborn arrived and family commitments had to come first, big boy games second, in 2017.

Damien relished the opportunity to relocate his growing family to Hua Hin and away from the bustle of Bangkok, to enjoy its much more easy-going lifestyle and less stressful, safer environment.  Now, as a realtor, Damien is noticing a significant shift in the demographics of people choosing to make Hua Hin their home in the post-Covid era.  He is being called on much more often to match would-be residents with their family home as Hua Hin’s reputation as a family-friendly locale blooms. As a professional, Damien is still concerned about the inadequacies he sees in local planning, with not enough investment in the establishment of a strategic plan to firmly put Hua Hin on the map as an international destination.

In 2018 Damien began a 3-year stint, working in a property management capacity, managing a complex in the Khao Tao area, with its garden and pool maintenance and any of the number of issues which arose for owners and residents. It was during this time that Damien learnt some valuable skills in real estate and established the customer-service network which now he employs to his own advantage with the A-team.

Damien had two further short-term jobs before eventually becoming his own boss.  He worked at Venezia as operations manager for four months or so, but was not allowed the flexibility he needed to turn the business around.  Damien then worked with Oyo, a hotel franchisor, as its Head of Business for the Hua Hin area until the Covid pandemic decimated the business and he was forced to look for an alternative income stream. Seeing a gap in the market for a highly professional customer-oriented real estate and property management service and deciding that he had the ideal skill set to plug that gap, the A-team was established in 2021, during Covid times, starting with nothing but some loaned funds from his parents. Damien was lucky that Expat Pro, a local legal firm, allowed him to use their office space, free of charge, to get the A-team on its toddler feet. Being his own boss now is allowing Damien to work on his own time schedule and play to his personal strengths of positivity, reliability and his capacity to follow an idea from conception to fruition. His sole regret is that he wasted so much time on his education when he really was not sure where he wanted to be and what he wanted to do.  Given a do-over, he would establish his own company much earlier on in his work life.

Looking ahead, Damien’s greatest hope for the future is to be in a solid financial position by the age of 50 so he is able to step further back from the day-to-day workload of the company and achieve a better work/life balance, with more quality family time.  He would like to be able to share the wonders of the Americas with his children and ensure they each have a good education.  Damien is still learning about parenting every day, a good thing since he requires the stimulation of new challenges, and, in his caring and honest way, is being a positive role-model to his young brood. Damien understands that his good reputation is a priceless asset, much more so than any material possession.  As father of three, Damien is trying to curb his sweet tooth and has been losing some kilograms.  Dana White, the founder and president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), a global mixed martial arts organisation, sprang to Damien’s mind as a role-model, for his great business acumen which has seen him amass a fortune of over $500 million, starting from scratch.

Damien loves the thrill of closing a deal almost as much as the affection of his children. He has been, and will continue to be, a chaser of his own “personal best”, citing his favourite place in the world as in an icebath, after having pushed himself to his limits.  With an attitude like that, success is sure to follow.