Anindya Novyan Bakrie is an Indonesian businessman and investor. He is known for being the CEO and President Director of PT Bakrie & Brothers Tbk, and the successor to the Bakrie Group, one of the oldest conglomerates in Indonesia. He was born in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. After obtaining his MBA from Stanford University, he returned to Jakarta to start his career at Bakrie & Brothers as managing director. In 2003, Bakrie became the CEO of Bakrie Telecom.
Bakrie began his career as an investment banker at Salomon Brothers in the United States in 1996. In 1997, he returned to Indonesia due to the 1997 Asian financial crisis. He then served as the Deputy to Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director of Bakrie & Brothers. During the period, the Company had 1.2 billions dollars of companies’ debt which was then converted into equity in 2001. In 2002, Bakrie sent a restructuring proposal to more than 200 creditors and persuaded them to convert their debt into equity, although it meant cutting the Bakrie Group’s stake from 60% to 21%. The company also owned a tv station named ANTV, and it was positioned to focus on family-friendly content such as quiz shows, children’s shows and soccer matches. In 2005, Anindya persuaded media mogul Rupert Murdoch to buy 20% of ANTV for $20 million. In 2007, Bakrie led the acquisition of a second TV station, Lativi Media Karya, from businessman and former labor minister Abdul Latief. The station was subsequently relaunched as "TV One" and repositioned to focus on news for middle-class viewers. After selling Bakrie Telekom to focus on media and technology, Bakrie took both TV stations, plus online news portal Vivanews, public in 2011 under the VIVA group, selling 14% of the shares for $73 million in fresh funds, valuing the VIVA group at $482 million. In April 2018, Bakrie was appointed by the shareholders of Bakrie & Brothers to become the president commissioner. In 2019, VIVA Group made an undisclosed investment in BumiLangit Studios, Indonesian character based entertainment company in Indonesia. Bakrie is concurrently co-leading the development of Indonesia’s own superhero cinematic universe through the library of the intellectual property rights of BumiLangit Studios that he invested in. He aims to replicate the global success of Marvel and DC Comics. The first movie in line, Gundala released in August 2019 was a theater hit grossing 48,3 million Rupiah. Aside from his business career, Anindya was appointed as the chairman of the Indonesian Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council by the Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and subsequently by the administration of Joko Widodo.
Bakrie married Firdani Saugi and they have three children: Alisha Anastasia Bakrie, Azra Fadilla Bakrie and Akila Abunundya Bakrie. Bakrie is an avid sportsman, he has completed numerous marathons and triathlons globally.
