astronomy

Nadiem Makarim

Nadiem Makarim is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Nadiem Makarim rather than just read about it. In short: Nadiem Anwar Makarim (born 4 July 1984) is an Indonesian politician and businessman who was the minister of education, culture, research, and technology of Indonesia, serving from 2021 until 2024. Prior to entering politics, in 2010, Makarim founded Gojek, Indonesia's first startup valued at over US$10 billion.

Key takeaways

Nadiem Makarim belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Nadiem Makarim to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Nadiem Makarim from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Nadiem Anwar Makarim (born 4 July 1984) is an Indonesian politician and businessman who was the minister of education, culture, research, and technology of Indonesia, serving from 2021 until 2024. Prior to entering politics, in 2010, Makarim founded Gojek, Indonesia's first startup valued at over US$10 billion. In October 2019, he was appointed Minister of Education and Culture by President Joko Widodo on his second term's cabinet and subsequently resigned from his post at Gojek. In 2025, Makarim was arrested in connection with the corruption case Chromebook procurement scandal. In 2026, he was convicted of corruption and sentenced to 10 years in prison; he denied wrongdoing and said he would appeal.

Early life and education Nadiem Makarim was born in Singapore on 4 July 1984, to Indonesian parents, Nono Anwar Makarim and Atika Algadri. His father is an activist, lawyer and is of mixed Minangkabau-Arab-Indian descent. His maternal grandfather is Hamid Algadri, an Indonesian independence fighter. He has two sisters, Hana Makarim, and filmmaker Rayya Makarim. He married Franka Franklin and they have three children. Makarim attended high school in Jakarta, and then graduated from the United World College of Southeast Asia (UWC SEA) in Singapore. He attended Brown University for an undergraduate degree in International Relations. He completed his MBA at Harvard Business School.

Business career

Early career After graduating from Brown University in 2006, Makarim decided to come back home to Indonesia and worked at McKinsey & Company. Makarim worked as a McKinsey consultant for 3 years. Makarim started his career at McKinsey & Company as management consultant in Jakarta. He left to co-found Zalora, an online fashion shop, then left Zalora to become Chief Innovation Officer at Kartuku, a payment service provider.

Zalora Makarim became co-founder and managing director for Zalora Indonesia in 2011. In 2012, Makarim made the decision to leave Zalora to focus on building his own startup, including Gojek, which at that time had 15 employees and 450 drivers. He claims to have learned enough from Zalora, which was his main goal in accepting the position in the first place. In Zalora, Makarim had the chance to build a mega startup and work with some of the best talents across the region.

Kartuku After leaving Zalora and while developing Gojek, Makarim also worked as a chief innovation officer of Kartuku. In the early days, Kartuku didn't have any competition in cashless payment solutions in Indonesia. Kartuku was then acquired by Gojek to strengthen GoPay.

Gojek

In 2010, Makarim created Gojek, which is today a decacorn company with a valuation of over US$10 billion. Gojek was first established as a call centre, offering only courier delivery and two-wheeled ride-hailing services. Today, Gojek has transformed into a super app, providing more than 20 services, ranging from transportation, food delivery, groceries, massage, house cleaning, logistics to a cashless digital payment platform called GoPay. Makarim often uses a motorcycle taxi, known in Indonesia as an ojek. He saw this as a business opportunity and developed it into Gojek, which was founded in 2010. Gojek was well received, and eventually received US$1,3 billion funding from investors, in a 2018-round led by Alphabet Inc's Google, JD.com Inc, and Tencent Holdings. It thereby became the first Indonesian unicorn. By 2019, the firm was worth up to US$10 billion. On 21 October 2019, Gojek announced that Makarim would leave the company to join president-elect Jokowi's Onward Indonesia Cabinet. His position as CEO was replaced by Gojek group president Andre Soelistyo and Gojek co-founder Kevin Aluwi as co-CEOs. On the second reshuffle of the cabinet, announced at 28 April 2021, he was appointed the first holder of Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology.

World Economic Forum He is part of the WEF as a global shaper and has direct control over cultural matters.

Political career

Cabinet minister Under Makarim's tenure as Minister of Education and Culture, a decree prohibiting Indonesian schools from enforcing rules mandating the wearing of religious attire was signed into effect on 3 February 2021. Schools were given 30 days to repeal any rules making the wearing of religious attire compulsory before they would face sanctions. Makarim supported the ban, stating that whether a person should wear religious clothing is "an individual's right… it is not the school's decision." “I joined this government at the request of President Jokowi, leaving behind a career I had spent years building,” he said. “I did it because I believed I could make a difference for Indonesian children and for the future of education in this country.”

Corruption case

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nadiem Makarim

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nadiem Makarim claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Nadiem Makarim before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Nadiem Makarim ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Nadiem Makarim

In research: Nadiem Makarim appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Nadiem Makarim in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Nadiem Makarim is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1984 births, Brown University alumni, Culture ministers of Indonesia, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nadiem Makarim outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Nadiem Makarim in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Nadiem Makarim means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Nadiem Makarim out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nadiem Makarim in simple terms?

Why does Nadiem Makarim matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Nadiem Makarim?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Nadiem Makarim.