Breaking News: Dwi Sucipto named new Pertamina's CEO

By Godang Sitompul

Dwi Sucipto, President Director of state owned cement firm PT Semen Indonesia, has been selected by President Joko Widodo as new president director of state owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina.

While announcing the appointment of Soetjipto, Minister of State Enterprises Rini M. Soewandi said Soetjipto has been selected in view of his success in turning Semen Indonesia into the largest cement producer not only in Indonesia but also in Southeast Asia.

?Soetjipto?s leadership has brought changes to the state firm,? Rini told reporters in Jakarta on Friday.

Sources earlier said the selection team headed by Vice President Jusuf Kalla proposed two names to assume the president director position of Pertamina. They were Soetjipto and GE Indonesia?s CEO Handry Satriago.

Soetjipto will take over from Muhammad Husen, who was named acting president director following the resignation of Karen Agustiawan as president director several months ago.

Born on Nov. 10, 1955, Soetjipto graudated from the chemical engineering faculty of the Sepuluh November Institute of Technology (ITS) in Surabaya and got a doctoral degree from the University of Indonesia (UI).

He was first named as President Director of PT Semen Gresik Tbk in 2005 and continued leading the firm following its merger with smaller state owned cement firms PT Semen Padang and PT Semen Tonasa into PT Semen Indonesia in 2013. Under his leadership, Semen Indonesia expanded to Vietnam, opening a cement plant there.

Rini also announced the appointment of Ahmad Bambang, Arief Budiman and Yenny Andayani as new directors of Pertamina with a special task of restructuring Pertamina?s business.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon