Erick Thohir (born 30 May 1970) is an Indonesian businessman and politician who has served as Indonesia's

Minister of State Owned Enterprises The Minister of State Owned Enterprises is the government minister in New Zealand responsible for trading enterprises owned by the New Zealand Government (see State-owned enterprises of New Zealand), usually in conjunction with the minister r ...

since 2019. He is the founder of Mahaka Group, a conglomeration that focuses on media, sports and entertainment. Globally known as the former owner and chairman of Italian football giant

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter i ...

and US soccer club D.C. United, Thohir is currently co-owner alongside Anindya Bakrie of English League One team

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and th ...

and Liga 1 outfit

Persis Solo Persatuan Sepakbola Indonesia Surakarta (commonly known as PERSIS Solo, literally translates to Indonesian Football Association of Surakarta), is an Indonesian football club based in the Central Java city of Surakarta. Founded on 8 November 1923 ...

along with

Kaesang Pangarep Kaesang Pangarep (born 25 December 1994) is an Indonesian entrepreneur and YouTuber. He is the third and youngest son of 7th Indonesian president Joko Widodo. He graduated from ACS International in Singapore with an International Baccalaureate ...

, the youngest son of President

Joko Widodo Joko Widodo (; born 21 June 1961), popularly known as Jokowi, is an Indonesian politician and businessman who is the 7th and current president of Indonesia. Elected in July 2014, he was the first Indonesian president not to come from an elit ...

. He was also the president director of ANTV television station and the chief of the Indonesian Olympic Committee. In 2019, he became a member of the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...

(IOC).

Early and personal life

Erick Thohir was born on 30 May 1970. His father, Teddy Thohir, was a co-owner of the automotive group

Astra International Astra International is an Indonesian conglomerate controlled by Jardine Matheson. It is founded in 1957 by Tjia Kian Tie, Liem Pen Hong with the name of PT. Astra International Incorporated. It is Southeast Asia's largest independent automotive g ...

with William Soeryadjaya. His brother, Garibaldi Thohir, is an investment banker and entrepreneur in the energy sector. He also has a sister, Rika Thohir. As a child, the younger Thohir helped the family business. Thohir received his master's degree in 1993 from

National University (California) National University (NU) is a private university with its headquarters in San Diego, California. Founded in 1971, National University offers academic degree programs at campuses throughout California, a satellite campus in Nevada, and various pro ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. Currently, Thohir's family holding company, TNT Group, has large investments in the Indonesian energy, foods, property and media industries. In 2015, the TNT group had a revenue of $1.1 billion.

Career

Upon his return to Indonesia, together with his colleagues, he formed the Mahaka Group. In 2001, the Mahaka Group bought '' Republika'', the biggest Islamic newspaper in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

. Because of Thohir's background in communications, he was chosen to lead the paper. He received support from his father, as well as founder of ''

Kompas ''Kompas'' () is an Indonesian national newspaper from Jakarta which was founded on 28 June 1965. The paper is published by PT Kompas Media Nusantara, which is a part of Kompas Gramedia Group. Its head office is located at the Kompas Multime ...

'' Jakob Oetama and founder of ''

Jawa Pos ''Jawa Pos'' ( 'Java Post') is an Indonesian national daily newspaper based in Surabaya, East Java. ''Jawa Pos'' was launched by Suseno Tedjo or The Chung Shen on July 1, 1949. The parent company, "Jawa Pos Group", is owned by Indonesian media ty ...

'' Dahlan Iskan to run this newspaper. The Mahaka Group spread its potential by investing in the outdoor advertising company Mahaka Advertising due to the growth of the economic and the city size in 2002. After launching the television station Jak TV, Mahaka introduced the radio stations 98.7 Gen FM and 101 Jak FM, and participated in PT Radionet Cipta Karya ( Prambors FM,

Delta FM Delta FM was a United Kingdom local radio station, broadcasting to East Hampshire, South West Surrey and North West Sussex. The station provided local news, community information, and specialist music programming to the towns of Alton, Hampshire ...

and FeMale Radio), as well as numerous advertising, ticketing, entertainment and digital companies. Thohir is the founder of Darma Bakti Mahaka Foundation. In 2011, together with Anindya Bakrie he co-owned the television stations tvOne, as well as the internet news site Viva News. In 2014, he was involved in a turnaround project and became the President Director of ANTV. In 2018, incumbent president

picked Thohir as chief of his re-election campaign for the 2019 presidential election. In 2019, among 10 other individuals Thohir was appointed to the International Olympic Committee.

Sports team ownership

After negotiations started after the 2011 NBA All-Star Game with former basketball agent

Jason Levien Jason M. Levien (born 1973) is an American sports executive. He is the CEO and managing general owner of the Major League Soccer club D.C. United and co-owner of Swansea City, a Welsh football club, and the Brisbane Bullets, an Australian baske ...

and managing owner Joshua Harris, Thohir became part of the consortia that bought the

Philadelphia 76ers The Philadelphia 76ers, colloquially known as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Ea ...

. The consortia included actor

Will Smith Willard Carroll Smith II (born September 25, 1968), also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor and rapper. He began his acting career starring as a fictionalized version of himself on the NBC sitcom '' The Fresh ...

, his wife

Jada Pinkett Smith Jada Koren Pinkett Smith (; née Pinkett; born September 18, 1971) is an American actress and talk show host. She is co-host of the Facebook Watch talk show '' Red Table Talk'', for which she has received a Daytime Emmy Award. ''Time'' name ...

David S. Blitzer David S. Blitzer (born September 7, 1969) is global head of tactical opportunities at the private equity firm Blackstone Group and is co-founder of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment. He is or has been a co-managing partner and minority owner ...

, of the private equity firm

Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate bu ...

and Indonesian businessman Handy Soetedjo. Comcast-Spectacor and Harris began talks in the summer of 2011. The deal was announced on 13 July 2011. In addition to his business, Thohir also owns the basketball team, Satria Muda, and served as an honorary board member of the Indonesian Basketball Association ( PERBASI / Persatuan Bola Basket Seluruh Indonesia) from 2015 to 2019. He has been President of SEABA (Southeast Asian Basketball Association) since 2006. He was a FIBA board member, Chef De Mission of Indonesia Contingent for the Olympic Games London 2012, and Chairman of National Olympic Committee for 2015–2019.

Basketball clubs

(formerly, until 2013) * Satria Muda

Football clubs

* D.C. United (formerly, until 2018) *

(formerly, until 2019) *

(with Anindya Bakrie) *

(with

)

Chairman of Inter Milan

In September 2013,

chairman ( it, presidente, lit=president or chairman ) and owner Massimo Moratti confirmed that he was in discussions to sell a majority 70% stake in the club to Thohir. On 15 October 2013, after a long negotiation, International Sports Capital HK Limited, led by Thohir (for 60% stake), Handy Soetedjo (20%) and Rosan Roeslani (20%), became the majority shareholder of Inter Milan, acquiring a 70% stake of the club by a subscription of new shares. On 15 November 2013, the club's general meeting appointed Thohir as new chairman of the board of directors of Inter Milan, replacing Moratti, who would remain with the club as honorary chairman. Moratti left the position in late October 2014. During Thohir's chairmanship, former Inter star

Javier Zanetti Javier Adelmar Zanetti (; born 10 August 1973) is an Argentine former professional footballer. He is regarded as one of the best players of his generation, and is especially well known for his role in Inter Milan's treble-winning 2009–10 seas ...

was hired as

vice president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

in 2014. In June 2016, Thohir sold part of his stake in the club (via International Sports Capital) to

Suning Holdings Group Suning Holdings Group Co., Ltd. () is a Chinese privately held company. The company shared the same founder Zhang Jindong with the listed company Suning.com, but Suning Holdings was the unlisted portion of Zhang's unincorporated Suning Group. Acc ...

, chaired by Chinese billionaire entrepreneur

Zhang Jindong Zhang Jindong (; born March 1963) is a Chinese billionaire entrepreneur. He is one of the founders and the current honorary chairman of the Suning.com, headquartered in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. He also owned 100% stake in Suning Holdings Grou ...

. Thohir remained as the chairman of the club, as well as its second largest shareholder. On 26 October 2018, Zhang Jindong's son,

Zhang Kangyang Zhang Kangyang or Steven Zhang (; born 21 December 1991) is a Chinese businessman and chairman of the Italian football club Inter Milan. Biography Born in Nanjing, Zhang is the son of Chinese billionaire Zhang Jindong, founder and chairman of t ...

(Steven Zhang) became the new chairman, replacing Thohir. On 25 January 2019, FC Internazionale Milano S.p.A. (the legal entity of Inter Milan) officially announced that LionRock Capital from

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

reached an agreement with Thohir's International Sports Capital HK Limited, in order to acquire its 31.05% shares in Inter Milan and to become the new minority shareholder in the Milanese football club.

References

External links

Official website of PT. Mahaka Media Group

Official website of antv

Official website of Satria Muda Basketball
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thohir, Erick Living people 1970 births People from Jakarta D.C. United owners Philadelphia 76ers executives Indonesian Muslims Indonesian businesspeople Indonesian billionaires Indonesian people of Chinese descent Indonesian socialites Indonesian football chairmen and investors Inter Milan chairmen and investors Government ministers of Indonesia Onward Indonesia Cabinet International Olympic Committee members Sundanese people