Nadiem Makarim co-founded Indonesian ride-hailing app giant Gojek before serving as Indonesia’s education, culture, research and technology under President Joko Widodo’s administration from April 2021. Prior to that, he was the country’s education and culture minister from October 2019 until his current post.
Nadiem had stints at Kartuku, Zalora Indonesia and McKinsey & Company in Indonesia. He has a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School in 2011 and a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Brown University in 2006. Since this year, his ministry allows Indonesian university students to electively take subjects outside their majors for three semesters, part of its Kampus Merdeka (Independent Campus) policy.