Muhammad Bobby Afif Nasution (born 5 July 1991) is an Indonesian businessman and politician currently serving as the governor of

North Sumatra North Sumatra () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia located in the northern part of the island of Sumatra. Its capital and largest city is Medan on the east coast of the island. It borders Aceh to the northwest, Riau to the sou ...

. He was previously Medan's mayor between 2021 and 2025. He is the son-in-law of former President

Joko Widodo Joko Widodo (; born 21 June 1961), often known mononymously as Jokowi, is an Indonesian politician, engineer, and businessman who served as the seventh president of Indonesia from 2014 to 2024. Previously a member of the Indonesian Democratic ...

Early life and education

Nasution was born on 5 July 1991 in

Medan Medan ( , ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of North Sumatra. The nearby Strait of Malacca, Port of Belawan, and Kualanamu International Airport make Medan a regional hub and multi ...

, as the youngest of three siblings in a Batak Mandailing family. His father Erwin Nasution had been the president and director of the state-owned plantation company PTPN IV. Nasution went to elementary school in Pontianak,

West Kalimantan West Kalimantan () is a province of Indonesia. It is one of five Indonesian provinces comprising Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. Its capital and largest city is Pontianak. It is bordered by East Kalimantan and Central ...

, then middle and high school in

Bandar Lampung Bandar Lampung ( Lampungese: ''Kutak Bandarlampung''; formerly Dutch: ''Oosthaven'', ) is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of Lampung. Located on the southern tip of Sumatra, Bandar Lampung was originally called Tanjungka ...

. He studied

agribusiness Agribusiness is the industry, enterprises, and the field of study of value chains in agriculture and in the bio-economy, in which case it is also called bio-business or bio-enterprise. The primary goal of agribusiness is to maximize profit ...

at university, obtaining his bachelor's and master's degrees from the Bogor Agricultural Institute.

Business career

In 2011, Nasution began working in the real estate industry, initially repairing and reselling homes, then building some homes and being involved in larger projects. By 2016, he joined the real estate Takke Group as a marketing director through the introduction of his father. Outside of real estate, Nasution had briefly worked as a manager for the football club Medan Jaya in 2014.

Political career

Mayor of Medan

Nasution submitted a bid to run as a mayoral candidate for his hometown of Medan in the 2020 Indonesian local elections through Jokowi's political party PDI-P. This caused multiple observers to suggest that a political dynasty was being established, which Nasution denied. In the ensuing months, he visited Gerindra chairman

Prabowo Subianto Prabowo Subianto Djojohadikusumo (born 17 October 1951) is an Indonesian politician, businessman, and former four-star Indonesian Army, army general who is serving as the eighth and current president of Indonesia since 2024. He was previously t ...

and

National Mandate Party The National Mandate Party (), frequently abbreviated to PAN, is a non-sectarian, religion-basedAl-Hamdi, Ridho (2017). ''Moving towards a Normalised Path: Political Islam in Contemporary Indonesia''. Jurnal Studi Pemerintahan (Journal of Governme ...

chairman

Zulkifli Hasan Zulkifli Hasan (born 17 May 1962), or colloquially Zulhas or Bang Zul, is an Indonesian politician and businessman who is currently serving as Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs since 20 October 2024. Previously, he served as Ministry of ...

to gather support for his candidacy, in addition to registering with

Golkar The Party of Functional Groups (), often known by its abbreviation Golkar, is a Centre politics, centre to Centre-right politics, centre-right big tent secular nationalist political parties in Indonesia, political party in Indonesia. Founded in ...

. He had officially become a cadre of PDI-P in March 2020. He was elected Mayor of Medan in December 2020, after winning 54.5% of the votes and defeating incumbent mayor Akhyar Nasution. In November 2023, Nasution was expelled from PDI-P due to his endorsement of

in the

2024 Indonesian presidential election Presidential elections were held in Indonesia on 14 February 2024 with defence minister and former general Prabowo Subianto contesting the elections against the former governor of Jakarta, Anies Baswedan and the former governor of Central Java, G ...

. In May 2024, Nasution ordered a shopping mall in Medan to be closed, citing unpaid municipal taxes since 2011 amounting to Rp 250 billion (USD 16 million). Also in May 2024, he joined the Gerindra Party.

Governor of North Sumatra

Personal life

While studying for his master's degree in Bogor, Nasution met Kahiyang Ayu (born 20 April 1992), the only daughter of 7th Indonesian president,

(Jokowi). They dated for around a year after they met in 2015, and the two married in November 2017, through a ceremony in Jokowi's hometown of

Surakarta Surakarta (Javanese script, Javanese: , Pegon script, Pegon: ), known colloquially as Solo (Javanese script, Javanese: ; ), is a major List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city in Central Java, Indonesia. The city adjoins Karanganyar Reg ...

which was attended by some 7,000 live guests and watched by millions of people.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nasution, Bobby 1990 births 21st-century mayors of places in Indonesia Living people People from Medan Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle politicians Bogor Agricultural University alumni Joko Widodo family People of Batak descent Mayors of Medan Great Indonesia Movement Party politicians