Dato' Sri Tahir, born Ang Tjoen Ming (; born 26 March 1952) is an Indonesian billionaire, and a banking and property magnate. He is the founder of the

Mayapada Group The Mayapada Group is an Indonesian-based conglomerate founded by Dato Sri Tahir in 1986. Tahir started this with a garment and textile manufacturing business, and four years later, he founded Bank Mayapada . The garment business no longer exis ...

. On 13 December 2019, 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 ...

appointed Tahir to the Presidential Advisory Council. He is married to the daughter of Indonesian billionaire Mochtar Riady.

Early life and education

Tahir was born in

Surabaya Surabaya is the capital city of East Java Provinces of Indonesia, province and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern corner of Java island, on the Madura Strai ...

, East Java, in 1952, in a slum area. He was raised by his parents who made a living by constructing pedicabs, known as '' becak''. In 1971, he graduated from Petra Kalianyar Christian High School in Surabaya. Tahir wanted to be a medical doctor, but when his father fell sick and could not afford his medical school tuition, Tahir dropped out of college to focus on helping with his father's business. He received a scholarship from Nanyang Technological Institute (now

Nanyang Technological University Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is a public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1981, it is also the second oldest autonomous university in the country. The university is organised across numerous colleges and schools, includi ...

) in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

, earning a Bachelor of Arts/Science. At the age of 35, he went to Golden Gate University in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and completed his Master's degree in financial education.

Business career

During his studies in Singapore, Tahir started small trade business, buying merchandise from Singapore and selling it in Surabaya when he went home for vacation. This business was his introduction to import trading. In 1986, he established The

and expanded the business to many sectors including garments, finance, automobiles, health and media. During the 1997-98 Asian monetary crisis, Mayapada Bank survived even though many other banking corporations collapsed, because the bank was not taking credit from international sources.

Philanthropy

In 2013, Tahir contributed more than US$100 million to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, an organization that provides funding for efforts to fight major diseases such as

HIV/AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

Tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

polio Poliomyelitis ( ), commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 75% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe ...

and

malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...

Honours

National

*: **

- 2015

Foreign

*: ** : *** MY-PAH Order of Sultan Ahmad Shah of Pahang - Grand Knight - SSAP

Grand Knight of the Order of Sultan Ahmad Shah of Pahang (SSAP) – Dato' Sri

References

External links

Tahir Foundation
Living people 1952 births 21st-century philanthropists Indonesian businesspeople Indonesian billionaires Indonesian Christians Indonesian philanthropists Indonesian people of Chinese descent Mayapada People from Surabaya {{indonesia-business-bio-stub