Inspiring Person

CHAIRUL TANJUNG

          Chairul Tanjung was born from a father (Abdul Ghafar Tanjung) in Sibolga, who was a journalist during the old order which published a newspaper with minimal circulation. He recovered on June 16, 1962 by his mother, Halimah who came from the area Cibadak, West Java which is an ordinary housewife.

           He was born from a middle to lower class family, where Chairul Tanjung along with his parents and six siblings were forced to sell their house and move into a narrow guest room. This is due to his father's attempts to be forcibly closed down by reason of political opposition to the rulers of the time. His childhood was spent in elementary and junior high school Van Lith, Jakarta in 1975. He continued his studies at SMA Negeri 1 Boedi Oetomo in 1981 and successfully graduated as a student from the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Indonesia in 1987. Not until there, a successfully took his MBA degree from Executive Institute of Educational and Development Management (IPPM) in 1993.

           Chairul Tanjung who is now known as the 937th richest man in the world Forbes magazine version was a small business to pay tuition money because of unfavorable financial conditions at the time. In order to finance his college needs, he once traded college books, photocopies to shirt-making services. He also established a medical and laboratory equipment store in the Senen area, Central Jakarta, although in the end went bankrupt. In his unfavorable condition, he persevered in working and completed his college degree, even he was awarded as a National Exemplary Student in 1984-1985. His failure to build a medical and laboratory equipment store business did not discourage him. He tried to open a contractor business even though he remained bankrupt so he had to work in a steel company and had moved to a rattan company.

            After graduating from Faculty of Dentistry, University of Indonesia in 1987, Chairul Tanjung together with three colleagues started an export shoe making business called PT Pariarti Shindutama with capital of Rp150 million borrowed from Bank Exim. He was lucky because the order as many as 160 thousand pairs of shoes from Italy so that makes business with colleagues was thriving. Unfortunately, their cooperation was stalled by the difference of vision in terms of business expansion that made Chairul Tanjung decide to separate from his colleagues and establish his own business. Chairul Tanjung is a person who wants to be friends with anyone, even with letters officers regarded as important. Kegemarannya in networking with various circles to make the business progress more smoothly.

            He built relationships with various companies, both well-known even with companies that are not well known though. He directs his business to a conglomerate (a company that has a variety of businesses and allows no linkage between one another) by repositioning itself to three core businesses, namely Finance, Property and Multimedia. Chairul Tanjung who had been asked to become the Task Force of the Minister of Forestry of Indonesia and the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources at the time of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, secured the company with Para Group.

            This conglomeration company has Holdindo Core as a father holding company, which oversees several sub-holding, namely Global Investindo (financial business), Inti Investindo (media and investment) and Properties Inside (Properties). Due to its business development, Chairul Tanjung, The Cassava Boy preferred to acquire the company rather than build the business because he did not have time to build from scratch so he chose to acquire companies. A number of companies he has acquired and of course already belong to him.