Erick Thohir Remodel Pertamina's Board Of Directors And Reasons Why Keep Nicke Widyawati

President Director of Pertamina, Nicke Widyawati. (Photo: Pertamina)

JAKARTA - State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Minister Erick Thohir cut the board of directors of PT Pertamina (Persero). The red plate giant originally had 11 directors. However, after being trimmed, now Pertamina's board of directors remains six.

Based on the scattered board of directors, Nicke Widyawati remains the head of the national oil and gas company. Most of the figures who occupy the Pertamina board of directors are old figures.

Responding to the question of why Nicke Widyawati maintained his position as President Director of PT Pertamina (Persero), Erick explained, so far Nicke's figure still outperformed several other candidates.

"I think it is still the best choice. Some of the tasks we give can run. It is also important to understand that I chose not based on my likes and dislikes," he said in a video conference with journalists, Friday, June 12.

Erick said this step also confirmed that not all President Directors who were appointed during the previous ministerial era, namely, Rini Soemarno, were replaced during his current leadership.

"I want to clarify that I have not replaced all of the CEOs appointed by the BUMN Minister before. Why? That's not my leadership style," he explained.

According to Erick, in selecting and referring the company directors must prioritize a clear key performance indicator (KPI). He emphasized that he did not want to appoint the minister who lasted only one year to be replaced.

Furthermore, Erick said, the directors of state-owned companies need to be replaced when the assigned targets are not achieved or if the company leaders do not act professionally and bring individual interests in making policies.

"For me, the important thing is KPI. If the KPI is good, the target is achieved, we will maintain it," he said.

For your information, five of the six new directors of PT Pertamina (Persero) are old figures. They are Koeshartanto (HR Director), Emma Sri Martini (Finance Director), M. Haryo Yunianto (Business Support Director), and Mulyono (Logistics and Infrastructure Director).

There is only one new name on Pertamina's board of directors, namely Iman Rachman. Iman was appointed as Director of Strategy, Portfolio and Business Development.

Before getting a position at Pertamina, Iman was appointed by the Minister of BUMN (2014-2019 period) Rini Soemarno as President Director of PT Asset Management Company (PPA) in July 2019. Previously, he also served as finance director at two state-owned port operators, respectively Pelindo II (May 2016-September 2019) and Pelindo III (September 2018-July 2019).

It should be noted, Imam has long been involved in finance. In fact, he had a career at Danareksa Sekuritas, then became Chief Investment Banking at Mandiri Sekuritas in 2003.

Special Tasks for Nicke

Erick said one of the tasks Nicke had to complete was to bring Pertamina's sub-holding to go public or take the floor on the Indonesian stock exchange (IDX) by offering an initial public offering (IPO).

"So the target for the next two years is Mrs. Nicke, the President Director to be able to go public 1-2 sub-holding. So, there is transparency and clear accountability," said Erick.

Pertamina is the oil and gas sector BUMN holding that houses four sub-holding, namely the upstream (upstream) sub-holding, processing, marketing, and gas. One of the company's sub-holding companies that has taken the floor is the gas sub-holding, PT PGN (Persero) Tbk.