Nadiem Makarim
Order1st
OfficeMinistry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology|Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology
Term start28 April 2021
Term end20 October 2024
PresidentJoko Widodo
Predecessor
Successor
Order 129th
Office 1Ministry of Education and Culture (Indonesia)|Minister of Education and Culture
Term start 123 October 2019
Term end 128 April 2021
President 1Joko Widodo
Predecessor 1Muhadjir Effendy
Successor 1Himself (as Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology)
Office 21st Chief Executive Officer of Gojek
Term start 25 October 2010
Term end 2October 2019
Predecessor 2Position established
Successor 2
Birth date4 July 1984 (age 42)
Birth placeSingapore
Birth nameNadiem Anwar Makarim
PartyIndependent
SpouseFranka Franklin (m. 2014)
RelativesHamid Algadri (grandfather)
EducationUnited World College of Southeast Asia, Singapore
Alma mater
OccupationEntrepreneur · politician
Known forCo-founder of Gojek

Nadiem Anwar Makarim (born 4 July 1984) is an Indonesian politician and businessman who is the only minister of education, culture, research, and technology of Indonesia, serving from 2021 until 2024.[1]

Prior to entering politics, in 2010, Makarim founded Gojek, Indonesia's first startup valued at over US$10 billion.[2] In October 2019, he was appointed Minister of Education and Culture by President Joko Widodo on his second term's cabinet and subsequently resigned from his post at Gojek.[3][4]

Early life and education

Nadiem Makarim was born in Singapore on 4 July 1984, to Indonesian parents, Nono Anwar Makarim and Atika Algadri. His father is an activist, lawyer and is of mixed Minangkabau-Arab-Indian descent. His maternal grandfather is Hamid Algadri. He has two sisters, Hana Makarim, and filmmaker Rayya Makarim. He married Franka Franklin and they have three children.[5]

Makarim attended high school in Jakarta and United World College of Southeast Asia (UWC SEA), Singapore, and then went to Brown University for a BA in International Relations. He did his MBA at Harvard Business School.[6][7]

Business career

Early career

After graduating from Brown University in 2006, Makarim decided to come back home to Indonesia and worked at McKinsey & Company. Makarim worked as a McKinsey consultant for 3 years.[8]

Makarim started his career at McKinsey & Company as management consultant in Jakarta. He left to co-found Zalora, an online fashion shop, then left Zalora to become Chief Innovation Officer at Kartuku, a payment service provider.

Zalora

Makarim became co-founder and managing director for Zalora Indonesia in 2011. In 2012, Makarim made the decision to leave Zalora to focus on building his own startup, including Gojek, which at that time had 15 employees and 450 drivers. He claims to have learned enough from Zalora, which was his main goal in accepting the position in the first place. In Zalora, Makarim had the chance to build a mega startup and work with some of the best talents across the region.[9]

Kartuku

After leaving Zalora and while developing Gojek, Makarim also worked as a chief innovation officer of Kartuku.[10] In the early days, Kartuku didn't have any competition in cashless payment solutions in Indonesia.[9] Kartuku was then acquired by Gojek to strengthen GoPay.[11]

Gojek

See also: Gojek

In 2010, Makarim created Gojek, which is today a decacorn company with a valuation of over US$10 billion.[12] Gojek was first established as a call centre, offering only courier delivery and two-wheeled ride-hailing services. Today, Gojek has transformed into a super app, providing more than 20 services, ranging from transportation, food delivery, groceries, massage, house cleaning, logistics to a cashless digital payment platform called GoPay.[11]

Makarim often uses a motorcycle taxi, known in Indonesia as an ojek. He saw this as a business opportunity and developed it into Gojek, which was founded in 2010.[13][14]

Gojek was well received, and eventually received US$1,3 billion funding from investors, in a 2018-round led by Alphabet Inc's Google, JD.com Inc, and Tencent Holdings. It thereby became the first Indonesian unicorn.[15] By 2019, the firm was worth up to US$10 billion.[16]

On 21 October 2019, Gojek announced that Makarim would leave the company to join president-elect Jokowi's Onward Indonesia Cabinet. His position as CEO was replaced by Gojek group president Andre Soelistyo and Gojek co-founder Kevin Aluwi as co-CEOs.[17] On the second reshuffle of the cabinet, announced at 28 April 2021, he was appointed the first holder of Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology.[18]

World Economic Forum

He is part of the WEF as a global shaper and has direct control over cultural matters.[19]

Political career

Cabinet minister

Under Makarim's tenure as Minister of Education and Culture, a decree prohibiting Indonesian schools from enforcing rules mandating the wearing of religious attire was signed into effect on 3 February 2021. Schools were given 30 days to repeal any rules making the wearing of religious attire compulsory before they would face sanctions. Makarim supported the ban, stating that whether a person should wear religious clothing is "an individual's right… it is not the school's decision."[20]

Corruption case

Main article: Chromebook procurement scandal

On 4 September 2025, Makarim was arrested[21] after being named by the Attorney General's Office of Indonesia as a new suspect in the alleged corruption case involving the government procurement of Chromebook laptops.[22]

In May 2025, the Attorney General's Office of the Republic of Indonesia opened an investigation into alleged corruption related to the procurement program for educational digitalization devices, including Chromebook laptops, at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology for the 2019–2023 period with a budget of nearly IDR 10 trillion. [23] According to him, the policy of using Chrome OS-based devices in this project came from Makarim's orders. [24]

Makarim himself was summoned as a witness several times. He underwent questioning on June 23, 2025, July 15, 2025, and September 4, 2025, at the Deputy Attorney General's Office for Special Crimes in South Jakarta. He explained that the procurement was in accordance with the principle of transparency, and added that the program targets schools with internet access, differing from the previous administration's administration, which targeted 3T (Disadvantaged, Frontier, and Outermost) regions.[25]

On September 4, 2025, the Attorney General's Office officially named Makarim a suspect with the initials NAM.[26] Head of the Attorney General's Office's Legal Information Center, Anang Supriatna, stated that the determination of the suspect was made based on an in-depth examination of witness statements and evidence obtained by investigators.[27]

On September 23, 2025, through his legal team, Makarim filed a pretrial motion challenging his suspect status. According to him, Makarim's ​​suspect status was not supported by two valid pieces of evidence, as one of the alleged state losses in question was based on an audit by the authorized agency, namely the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency or the Supreme Audit Agency of the Republic of Indonesia. Based on this, Makarim's ​​legal team also stated that Makarim's ​​detention status was also invalid.[28][29]

Awards

  • In 2016, Makarim received The Straits Times Asian of the Year award and was the first Indonesian to receive the award since it was first established in 2012.[30]
  • In 2018, Makarim made it to Bloomberg 50 annual list of innovators. Bloomberg wrote that there was no other technology platform (app) that changed the lives of Indonesian as fast and as integrated as Gojek.[31]
  • In May 2019, Makarim was the youngest figure from Asia to receive the 24th Nikkei Asia Prize for economic and business innovation. Makarim doubled the prize to Rp860 million and donated the amount as education scholarship for Gojek drivers’ children.[32] Gojek contributed Rp 55 trillion (US$3.85 Billion) towards the Indonesian economy, with the average income of GoRide and GoCar partners increasing by 45% and 42% after joining Gojek, and culinary SMEs transaction volume increasing 55% after becoming GoFood merchant.[33]
  • In 2017, Gojek made it to Fortune's Top 50 Companies That Changed The World,[34] ranking 17th worldwide.[35] In 2019 Gojek once again made it to Fortune's Top 50 Companies That Changed The World, and was the only Southeast Asian company to have been included twice in the list - this year leaping to number 11 out of 52 global companies.[35]
  • In November 2019, Makarim was the only Indonesian to be included on 100 Next list for Leaders category by the Time magazine.[36] Time's 100 Next list this year is to recognize the influence of rising stars who are shaping the future in their respective fields.

International organizations

With Melinda Gates and the Minister of Finance of Indonesia, Sri Mulyani, Makarim served as one of the commissioners of Pathways for Prosperity for Technology and Inclusive Development that focuses on helping developing countries to adapt to various new digital innovations that change the working culture.[37]

References

  1. ^ "Indonesian President Jokowi announces new Cabinet". The Straits Times. 23 October 2019. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  2. ^ "In brief: Gojek is Southeast Asia's second 'decacorn' with estimated $10b valuation". Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  3. ^ "Daftar Lengkap Menteri Kabinet Indonesia Maju Jokowi". nasional. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  4. ^ Pham, Sherisse (October 21, 2019). "Gojek CEO quits ride-hailing startup for Indonesian government job". CNN. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  5. ^ "Biography of Nadiem Makarim". Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  6. ^ "Riwayat Nadiem Makarim dan Perjuangan Membesarkan Gojek" (in Indonesian). Detik. 23 July 2019. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  7. ^ Hutton, Jeffrey (1 Sep 2016). "The Taxi Wars of Jakarta". Harvard Business School - Alumni. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  8. ^ "Profil Nadiem Makarim". VIVA. 10 November 2016.
  9. ^ "Tech in Asia Indonesia - Komunitas Online Startup di Asia". id.techinasia.com. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  10. ^ Sungkar, Aulia R. (June 20, 2015). "Innovating ideas to revolutionize 'ojek'". The Jakarta Post
  11. ^ Ayuwuragil, Kustin. "Perkuat Gopay, Gojek Caplok Kartuku, Midtrans dan Mapan". CNN Indonesia. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  12. ^ Salna, Karlis (6 April 2019). "Go-Jek Joins 'Decacorn' Ranks With $10 Billion Valuation". Bloomberg. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
  13. ^ "Go-Jek founded from frustration". Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  14. ^ "Face to watch in 2019: Nadiem Makarim, CEO of Gojek". Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  15. ^ "Go-Jek raises US$1 billion in round led by Google, Tencent, JD". Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  16. ^ "Go-Jek begins services in Thailand, says Philippine launch to be 'pretty fast': CEO". Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  17. ^ Singh, Manish (October 21, 2019). "Gojek founder and CEO Nadiem Makarim resigns to join Indonesian cabinet; Soelistyo and Aluwi to be new co-CEOs". Techcrunch
  18. ^ Rizqo, Kanavino Ahmad (2021-04-28). "Ada Reshuffle, Ini Daftar Pejabat yang Dilantik Jokowi Hari Ini" (in id-ID). detiknews. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  19. ^ "Nadiem Makarim". World Economic Forum
  20. ^ "Indonesia bans forced religious attire in schools". BBC News. 2021-02-05. Retrieved 2021-05-28.
  21. ^ "Founder of Indonesian payments platform Gojek arrested in connection with graft probe". AP News. 4 September 2025.
  22. ^ "Kejagung Tetapkan Nadiem Makarim Tersangka Korupsi Pengadaan Laptop!" [The Attorney General's Office has named Nadiem Makarim a suspect in the laptop procurement corruption case.] (in Indonesian). Detik.com. 4 September 2025.
  23. ^ "Nadiem Makarim Visits the Attorney General's Office, Summoned Again in the Alleged Corruption Case of Chromebook Laptop Procurement". Liputan6.com. 4 September 2025. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  24. ^ kejadian/tetapkan-4-tersangka-kejagung-sebut-kerugian-negara-dari-korupsi-chromebook-tembus-rp198-triliun-439586-mvk.html "AGO Names 4 Suspects, Says State Losses from Chromebook Corruption Reach Rp1.98 Trillion". Merdeka.com. July 16, 2025. Retrieved September 4, 2025.
  25. ^ "Nadiem Explains Reasons for Procuring Chromebook Laptops at the Ministry of Education and Culture". CNN Indonesia. June 10, 2025. Retrieved September 4, 2025.
  26. ^ "Corruption Suspect, Nadiem Makarim Orders Use of Chromebook Before Procurement Begins" (in Indonesian). Kompas.id. 2025-09-04. Retrieved 2025-09-04.
  27. ^ "Nadiem Makarim Named Suspect in Chromebook Laptop Corruption Case at Attorney General's Office". Liputan6.com. 4 September 2025. Retrieved September 4, 2025.
  28. ^ Budi, Mulia (September 23, 2025). "Nadiem Makarim Files Praperadilan for Suspect Status in Laptop Corruption Case". Detik.com. Retrieved September 23, 2025.
  29. ^ Kamil, Irfan (September 23, 2025). ... Pretrial "nasional.kompas.com/read/2025/09/23/10493131/nadiem-makarim-ajukan-praperadilan?source=terpopuler ... Pretrial". Kompas.com. Damarjati, Danu (ed.). Retrieved September 23, 2025.
  30. ^ "Go-Jek founder Nadiem Makarim receives Asian of the Year award". Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  31. ^ "The Bloomberg 50". Bloomberg Businessweek
  32. ^ "Termuda se-Asia, Nadiem Makarim Raih Penghargaan Nikkei Asia Prize - Katadata.co.id". katadata.co.id. 29 May 2019.
  33. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2 October 2020. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
  34. ^ Fortune’s Top 50 Companies That Changed The World 2019
  35. ^ "GO-JEK Makes it Into Fortune's Change The World List, The Only Company from Southeast Asia on the List | Markets Insider". Business Insider
  36. ^ TIME 100 Next 2019: Nadiem Makarim
  37. ^ Keeton-Olsen, Danielle. "Digitization Key To Boosting Developing Economies, Says Report From Melinda Gates, Go-Jek's Nadiem Makarim". Forbes