Special Staff to the President of Indonesia, Managing Director at Indika Foundation

Ayu Kartika Dewi dedicates her life to creating social change and empowering youth. Currently, she serves as the Special Staff to the President of Indonesia and serves as the Managing Director at Indika Foundation.

Her strong interest in social issues occurred when she decided to leave a well-established career at P&G in Singapore to become a primary school teacher in a remote island of Indonesia. Since then, she has held various strategic positions in the Indonesian government, including Associate Director at President SBY’s Delivery Unit and Aide to the Governor of Jakarta.

She co-founded several social movements including SabangMerauke—a program that provides cross-cultural experience for youth, Milenial Islami—a platform that teaches Islamic values through critical thinking, Perempuan Gagal—a movement that aims to normalize failure, and Toleransi.id—a platform to promote tolerance acts in daily lives.

Ayu’s initiatives and efforts in diversity and peacebuilding have been recognized and appreciated by various national and international institutions. Recently, Ayu has been appointed as a fellow in KAICIID'S Fellowship program in 2023 and was selected as one of the Obama Leaders in the Obama Foundation Leaders Asia-Pacific 2022. Further, she was asked to give a speech about her work in front of Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-Moon in London in 2017. Ayu also represented Indonesia in Future Leaders Connect and was chosen by Australia Awards Indonesia to take part in the Women Leadership Program in Melbourne.

She has an MBA degree from Duke University, supported by both the Fulbright and Keller Scholarship.