Karen Agustiawan has become the first woman to step into the position of president director of state oil and gas company PT Pertamina.

The country now waits for her strong leadership to turn Pertamina into a world-class company.

The 50-year-old woman believes Pertamina has the potential to grow to be a world-class oil and gas company, once its employees think globally and company is free from intervention.

She said she would “reject it at any cost” if there was any intervention that would harm either Pertamina or the country.

When asked what it was like to be the first female top executive, she said, “It was just ordinary, nothing too special or overwhelming.”

In fact, being the first woman to hold a high organizational position is not something new for Karen. The public came to know her in March 2008 when she was appointed the position of Pertamina’s upstream director. Her first encounter with the oil and gas industry was 1984, right after she graduated from the Bandung Institute Technology (ITB), majoring in engineering of physics.

Karen has experience working in big oil and gas companies, including giant oil producer Mobil Oil, now ExxonMobil, and the world’s second largest oil field services provider, Halliburton Co.

She was the first Indonesian woman hired by Mobil Oil, where she worked for 14 years.

During her time at Mobil, Karen held several positions including system analysts and programmer to develop reserve calculation, seismic processor and quality controller systems for several seismic projects.

She was also project leader of the exploration computing department.

In 2002, she became the first Indonesian women hired as a commercial manager by Halliburton’s Indonesia unit.

“In international oil companies, having women as their top executives is a very common practice,” Karen said.

In leading Pertamina, Karen will share responsibility for the company with Omar Sjawaldy Anwar, the  newly appointed vice president director.

Omar was appointed CEO of mining giant Rio Tinto in August last year.

“I accepted the offer [of vice president director] because it was an order from the country and I wanted to serve my country,” he said.

The government appointed Omar because his experiences in business and finances were expected to complement Karen’s expertise in technical matters.

“We expect Pertamina to lead both the international and domestic markets. We will evaluate the strength and the weaknesses of the company,” Omar said.

Before joining Rio Tinto, Omar was state-run Bank Mandiri’s director of consumer finance.

Karen Agustiawan (born Oct. 19, 1958)

Education:

Engineering Physics,

Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB, 1978-1983)

Career:

1984-1996: Mobil Oil Indonesia

1998: CGG Petrosystems

2000-2002: Landmark Concurrent Solusi Indonesia

2002-2006: Halliburton

2006-2008: Various positions at Pertamina

Feb. 5, 2008: President director, Pertamina

Omar S. Anwar (born March 30, 1960)

Education:

MBA in Accounting,

George Washington University, USA

BA in Accounting,

University of Maryland, USA

Career:

..... -May 2008: Director, Bank Mandiri

Aug. 2008: CEO, Rio Tinto

Feb. 5, 2008: Vice President Director, Pertamina

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