General (Ret.) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan is the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs of Indonesia. He previously held positions as Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs and Presidential Chief of Staff to President Joko Widodo.
Pandjaitan was Minister of Trade and Industry for Indonesia during President Abdurrahman Wahid’s administration and Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Singapore during the crucial era of Reformasi from 1999 to 2000.
He graduated from Indonesian Armed Forces Academy in 1970, and was awarded Adhi Makayasa, the annual award conferred to its best graduate. In 1988, he graduated from George Washington University in Washington D.C. with Masters in Public Administration degree. A year later, he graduated from the National Defense University in the same city.
After retiring from military, in 2004 he founded Toba Sejahtra Group, a fast-growing group with three core activities: natural resources (oil, gas and mining), electricity generation (coal, gas and geothermal) and agriculture. A four-star general, he has diverse experience in the military, diplomacy, government, business and in what he defines as most important: social development.
Pandjaitan is the founder of DEL Foundation, which has created schools including a technology college for underprivileged students, a bilingual high school for gifted children, a kindergarten and an elementary school. In addition, the foundation awards scholarships and funds education infrastructure development and construction. Pandjaitan is also the founder of the Luhur Bakti Pertiwi Foundation, whose purpose is to nurture young Indonesian talents. His Kader Bangsa leadership program today has 250 alumni. In 2011 Pandjaitan received Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Social Development category.