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Astra Agro Lestari founder Benny Subianto passes away
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Great loss -- Benny Subianto (pictured), one of the founders of publicly listed plantation firm PT Astra Agro Lestari, passed away in Jakarta on Wednesday. Benny is still listed as Adaro Energy's commissioner. (Courtesy of Forbes/File)
B
enny Subianto, one of the founders of publicly listed plantation firm PT Astra Agro Lestari, a subsidiary of diversified conglomerate Astra International, passed away on Wednesday.
“Mr. Benny Subianto passed away at 7.02 a.m. at Medistra Hospital. His body will be laid for final respects at his private residence on Jl. Taman Patra III No. 9 Jakarta,” a text message received by The Jakarta Post on Wednesday morning said.
It was further said that Benny’s body would be buried at the San Diego Hills public cemetery today in the afternoon.
Benny joined Astra International in 1969 after he graduated from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). He joined his college mate Theodore "Teddy" Permadi Rachmat, who previously joined Astra, which was still a small company at that time.
Starting his career as a salesman of heavy equipment, Benny became the director of heavy equipment distributor United Tractors (UT), part of Astra International, in 1972 before he was appointed as UT president director in 1984. He also once served as a vice president of Astra International.
After quitting Astra in 2002 from his latest position as a commissioner, Benny focused his attention on managing the emerging diversified conglomerate Triputra Group, which he founded with Teddy Rachmat in 1998.
He then joined other businessmen, such as Edwin Soeryadjaya and Garibaldi Thohir – the sons of Astra's founders William Soeryadjaya and Teddy Thohir – to buy a 49 percent stake in coal miner Adaro Energy.
Adaro is one of Indonesia's major coal players and Benny is still listed as Adaro Energy's commissioner. (ebf)
