THE PIVOT — Origins

*I was an ex-enthusiast of oil and gas who moved to tech, then found my way back to climate policy.* THE BEGINNING - Studied Bioprocess (Chemical) Engineering at UI, but spent most of my extracurricular energy in oil and gas: Petrobowl, leading IATMI student chapter, interning at petroleum labs and an energy company - Graduated cum laude, but by 2018 I was questioning whether the industry aligned with where energy systems needed to go THE SWITCH - Joined Traveloka, one of Southeast Asia’s biggest travel tech companies, in product management, completely unrelated to my engineering degree - Learned product thinking, cross-functional coordination, stakeholder management, and design thinking, all skills I use every day in policy work THE BRIDGE - Resigned in early 2020 to prepare for my Master’s application. Then the pandemic hit - That year became a bridge: pivoted fully into climate by joining Climate Policy Initiative, then Recycling Technologies as their first Indonesian hire - In parallel, started coordinating Student Energy’s Global Youth Energy Outlook across Southeast Asia, which led to presenting at COP26 in Glasgow THE JOURNEY - Pursued my master’s at ETH Zürich (2021–2023) as the first Indonesian on an ESOP merit scholarship - McKinsey sustainability internship and Climateworks Centre consultancy for OJK - Since September 2023: NewClimate Institute in Berlin, co-authoring the Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor, leading Indonesia’s Climate Action Tracker assessment, and proposing frameworks for aligning private finance with the Paris Agreement