Founder

Ratih Hardjono

Founder, Ratih Hardjono, has been a Public Affairs specialist for 21 years. She completed her tertiary studies from the University of Sydney. She then worked for 14 years as an international correspondent in Sydney for Kompas, Indonesia’s leading daily newspaper. Ratih won the Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and remains the only Indonesian woman to have received the prestigious Nieman Fellowship.

In 1999, Ratih joined the campaign team for Abdurrahman Wahid. After his election as Indonesia's fourth President, she became Presidential Secretary, where she managed the presidential staff and seven presidential palaces, and notably set up the first civilian Indonesian presidential office since 1965. In this role, Ratih introduced freedom of the press at the presidential palace, and enabled all members of the press to have open access to the President.

In 2000, Ratih was a Programme Coordinator for Information and Publications for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Indonesia. She then worked at PT. Indo Pacific Edelman and then at PT. APCO Indonesia as a Public Affairs specialist, before establishing her own Public Affairs firm, PT. Mirah Sakethi Consultancies in 2004. In 2005, Ratih also helped establish an NGO, Komunitas Indonesia untuk Demokrasi (KID) or the Indonesian Community for Democracy, which established schools without wall knowns as Sekolah Demokrasi (SD) or Democracy Schools, in eight districts across Indonesia. At KID, she served as Secretary-General.