Ciputra

Ciputra was an Indonesian businessman, investor, and philanthropist who founded the Ciputra Group, one of the largest and most diversified property companies in Indonesia. He was also a trained architect who contributed to the development of Jakarta and other cities through his projects such as Ancol Dreamland, Pondok Indah, and Bumi Serpong Damai. He was known as one of Indonesia's most generous philanthropists, who established ten schools, the Ciputra University of Entrepreneurship in Surabaya, and the Ciputra Artpreneur Museum in Jakarta. He was born in Parigi, Central Sulawesi, in 1931, and grew up in poverty after his father was arrested and killed by the Japanese during World War II. He studied architecture at the Bandung Institute of Technology and started his own consulting firm with his friends while still in university. He moved to Jakarta and became the CEO of Pembangunan Jaya, a developer partly owned by the Jakarta provincial government. He later founded the Metropolitan Group with his friends and investors, and then the Ciputra Group for his family. He married Dian Sumeler, whom he met in Sulawesi, and had four children, who all serve on the boards of the Ciputra Group and Ciputra Development. He passed away in Singapore in 2019 at the age of 88.