Nicke Widyawati's Success Story, Starting from Tower Climber to President Director of Pertamina

Dream - PT Pertamina (Persero), the largest state-owned company in the energy sector, is now led by a woman for the second time.

After Karen Agustiawan, this State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) is now led by Nicke Widyawati. During her leadership in Pertamina, Nicke has successfully left a remarkable career path.

Born in Tasikmalaya on December 25, 1967, she has been listed as one of the influential women internationally for three consecutive years, namely in Fortune 2020, Forbes 2021, and Fortune 2022.

Nicke is not new to the SOE environment. This can be seen from the information stated on Pertamina's official website.

In the website, it is mentioned that Nicke has served as the Director of Human Resources (HR), then held the position of Acting Director of Logistics, Supply Chain, and Infrastructure.

It turns out that Nicke has not only held strategic positions in Pertamina. She has also served as the Director of Strategic Procurement 1 at PT PLN, and then as the President Director of PT Mega Eltra, an electrical contractor within PT Pupuk Sriwijaya's environment.

In addition, Nicke has also served as the Business Director at PT Rekayasa Industri (Rekind) and Vice President of the Corporate Strategy Unit (CSU) at the same company.

Starting from Rekind, Nicke claimed that her career has been steadily advancing until she reached the position of President Director of Pertamina.

She revealed this during a talk show on the BUMN Muda YouTube channel. In the show, Nicke initially received a mystery box from the BUMN Muda host.

Nicke considered it a surprise for her because the contents of the mystery box turned out to be a project helmet with the Rekind logo. Nicke then reminisced about her time working at Rekind.

According to Nicke, Rekind is where her dreams began, amidst the busy work schedule while studying.

"This is where my dreams started, from being a banker. While studying, I worked as a banker, and after graduating, I pursued a career as an engineer in the field.

"So I use this helmet every day, climbing towers, then roaming around the field, I've been doing this for years," Nicke said.

Nicke herself graduated with a Law degree from Padjadjaran University (Master's) in 2009, and an Industrial Engineering degree from Bandung Institute of Technology (Bachelor's) in 1991.

Nicke revealed that she worked at Rekind for 23 years. During that time, she claimed to have learned many extraordinary things at the company.

Starting as a field engineer, Nicke then moved into corporate management. After that, she worked in human capital management, then moved to finance management, and finally to the business division.

"It means I have been involved in almost all functions during my 23 years at Rekind. It was the first time Indonesia was able to build a fertilizer plant independently at Usri 1B. I was a project engineer there. I met my husband there," Nicke recalled.

For Nicke, there are many interesting stories that she weaves at Rekind, all of which are in line with her passion in the field of Industrial Engineering. For example, after Rekind, Nicke managed offshore projects with Exxon through Pertamina.

This was the first time an offshore project was carried out independently by the best sons and daughters of Indonesia through a technology transfer scheme.

Nicke herself served as the President Director of Pertamina for two terms. The first term was when the Minister of SOEs was still held by Rini Soemarno.

However, at that time, she was appointed as the Acting President Director on April 2018 to replace Elia Massa Manik. Nicke was chosen because she was serving as the chairperson of the oil and gas holding implementation.

Four months later, on August 29, 2018, Nicke officially became the President Director of Pertamina. Nicke is the second female President Director after Karen Agustiawan.

This position continued into the second term after Minister of SOEs Erick Thohir reappointed Nicke as the President Director of Pertamina on September 19, 2022.

Nicke stated that with this trust, Pertamina will continue the energy transition with initiatives and strategic agendas to ensure energy resilience in the future while pursuing the aspirations of shareholders to achieve a market value of US$100 billion.

Being a leader of thousands of predominantly male workers, Nicke admitted that this has been a challenging task. However, she sees it as an opportunity to prove that women can become leaders and companions in the workplace.

In the end of the video, Nicke shared her parents' wishes when she was in school. Nicke's parents actually wanted her to become a doctor. However, throughout her life journey, Nicke saw many careers that could be pursued.

"The important thing is to be able to provide benefits to many people," Nicke concluded.