William Soeryadjaya, a.k.a. Tjia Kian Liong (; December 20, 1922 – April 2, 2010), also known as Oom (Uncle) Willem, born in

Majalengka Majalengka ( su, ᮙᮏᮜᮦᮀᮊ) is a town and district in West Java, Indonesia. The district is the regency seat of Majalengka Regency. At the 2010 Census, the district had a population of 68,871, of which the town (comprising the communities ...

, was a

Chinese Indonesian Chinese Indonesians ( id, Orang Tionghoa Indonesia) and colloquially Chindo or just Tionghoa are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries. Chinese people and their Indonesian descendants have ...

businessman who co-founded

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 ...

, Indonesia's largest conglomerate. He lost his parents at the age of 12 and had to cease his education at 19. But he continued his education in later years and studied at Leder & Schoenindustrie in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Soeryadjaya co-founded Astra, then a trading company, with his brother, Tjia Kian Tie, in 1957. The company grew to become Indonesia's largest automobile retailer and the country's biggest company by

market value Market value or OMV (Open Market Valuation) is the price at which an asset would trade in a competitive auction setting. Market value is often used interchangeably with ''open market value'', ''fair value'' or ''fair market value'', although the ...

. The company, which also owns finance, plantation, auto parts manufacturing, heavy machinery and mining services and automotive businesses, sells

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

motorcycles, BMW,

Daihatsu , commonly known as Daihatsu, is a Japanese automobile manufacturer and one of the oldest surviving Japanese internal combustion engine manufacturers. The company's headquarters are located in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture. Historically, Daihatsu was ...

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...

Citroën Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired ...

and

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

vehicles throughout Indonesia. In March 2010, Astra overtook

Telkom Indonesia PT Telkom Indonesia (Persero) Tbk, also simply known as Telkom, is an Indonesian multinational telecommunications conglomerate. Telkom is listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange and has a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange. T ...

to become Indonesia's most valuable company. Soeryadjaya lost control of Astra in 1992, when he sold most of his family's shares to rescue his eldest son's (Edward Soeryadjaya) Summa Bank, which had suffered from a credit crisis and finally collapsed. He personally guaranteed all Summa Bank depositors their money back, and all depositors received their money back with interest without using any bailout package from the government at the expense of his ownership in Astra. In 2009, ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'' magazine rated the Soeryadjaya family as Indonesia's 18th-wealthiest family. William Soeryadjaya died in

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

on April 2, 2010, at the age of 87 and was buried in

San Diego Hills San Diego Hills is a privately owned cemetery in Indonesia owned by Lippo Land Club. Established in January 2007, San Diego Hills is the first cemetery in Indonesia that combines the elegant cemetery concept of Forest Lawn with Indonesian cu ...

in the following days.

References

External links

Jakarta Post: William Soeryadjaya, a Modest Businessman, Dies at 87
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soeryadjaya, William 1922 births 2010 deaths Indonesian Christians Indonesian billionaires Indonesian businesspeople Indonesian philanthropists Indonesian people of Chinese descent People from Jakarta

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

People from Majalengka Regency 20th-century philanthropists Indonesian expatriates in the Netherlands