Ignasius Jonan (born 21 June 1963) is an Indonesian professional who was the

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesia ...

Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources serving under President Joko Widodo's

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, administ ...

. He is a former Indonesian Minister of Transportation and a former CEO of the Indonesian government-owned railway company, PT Kereta Api Indonesia (PT. KAI) which he headed from 2009 to 2014. Born in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, Jonan received his Bachelor's degree in Accounting from Airlangga University,

Surabaya Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of East Java and the second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern border of Java island, on the Mad ...

in 1986, and M.A. in International Relations and Affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learnin ...

in 2005. He started his professional career in the banking sector, holding a managing director role and investment banking head in

Citigroup Citigroup Inc. or Citi (Style (visual arts), stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking ...

Indonesia, before entering the public transportation sector in 2009. He was named by Sofyan Djalil, the then-Minister of State-owned Enterprises, to lead P.T. Kereta Api Indonesia.

Early life and education

Jonan was born on 21 June 1963 in Singapore. He grew up in

, graduating from St. Louis 1 Catholic High School in the city. He later graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Accounting from Airlangga University's School of Business and Economics in 1985. He took executive and management programs between 1999 and 2000 from

Columbia Business School Columbia Business School (CBS) is the business school of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1916, Columbia Business School is one of six Ivy League business schools and is one of the oldest busin ...

and John F. Kennedy School of Government at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. Jonan received his Master's degree in International Relations in 2005 from the Global Master of Arts Program (GMAP) at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy,

Career

Jonan started his career as an accountant and investment manager. In 1999, he became Director for Private Equity at Citigroup branch in Indonesia. Two years later, he was appointed CEO of the government-owned investment firm, PT. Bahana Pembinaan Usaha Indonesia, assuming the role until 2006. From 2006 to 2009, he was promoted by Citi as Managing Director and Head of Investment Banking for Indonesia.

PT KAI

Jonan was appointed head of P.T. Kereta Api Indonesia in 2009, in the midst of the railway company's output and financial troubles, He was faced with PT. KAI's 27,000 employees with low expectations in terms of work quality, a financial deficit (in 2008, it lost Rp 82.6 billion), and a high percentage of substandard or broken locomotives, diesel trains, freight cars and crumbling stations. In an speech for the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club, Jonan blamed the low train fares as a cause for the railway system's poor service and crowdedness. Within 5 years, he overturned public perception of the failing Indonesian rail transportation system. The company was able to increase passenger ridership by 50% in 2014 compared to when Jonan took up the role in 2009. Freight loads have also doubled to nearly 30 million tons per year.

Transport minister

On 26 October 2014, the newly-elected Indonesian President Joko Widodo named him as the 37th Minister of Transportation. Within this capacity, Jonan had wanted to ban ride-hailing apps such as Uber and Grab in 2015 citing existing regulations, but he was overridden by Widodo. In 2016, he again threatened a ban for the apps as they had not formally registered as taxi operators with the government. Following the crash of Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 in 2014, Jonan alleged that budget airlines in Indonesia had been endangering passenger safety due to cost-cutting measures.

Energy and Mineral Resources minister

On 27 July 2016, President Joko Widodo removed Jonan from his post in a cabinet reshuffle. In response to the reshuffle, Ignasius Jonan, with a flat face, said, "I will come back". On 14 October 2016 the president appointed Ignasius Jonan again, but now as Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources with Arcandra Tahar as his deputy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jonan, Ignasius 1963 births Indonesian politicians of Chinese descent Indonesian Roman Catholics Living people Airlangga University alumni The Fletcher School at Tufts University alumni Government ministers of Indonesia Energy ministers Working Cabinet (Joko Widodo) Indonesian Christians Transport ministers of Indonesia