Astra's Rachmat named as one of Asia's top CEOs

JAKARTA (JP): The Financial World, one of four major business magazines in the United States, has elected Astra International's president, Theodore Permadi Rachmat, as one of Asia's top chief executive officers.

Haruo Tsuji, the president of Japan's Sharp Corp. won the magazine's CEO of the year award for Asia while nine other Asian executives won Silver awards.

According to the magazine's July edition, the Silver award winners included Rachmat of Astra, Krishan Chugh of ITC, India's first multinational company, Don Argus of National Australia Bank, Peter Sutch of SWIRE, a British trading house in Hong Kong, Kim Kwang- ho of South Korea's Samsung Electronics, Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand's Shinawatra Group, Wang Yung Chin of Taiwan's Formusa Plastics, Quek Leng Chan of Malaysia's Hong Leong Group and Sim Kee Boon of Singapore's Keppel Corp.

The magazine also named the 10 best executives for Europe, the winner of the CEO of the year award and nine other executives as Silver award winners.

Founded by William Soeryadjaya in the 1950s, Astra has become Indonesia's second largest company since acquiring exclusive sales licenses for Toyota, Komatsu and Xerox. In time, Astra gradually acquired the technology to assemble all of these products on its own in Indonesia.

"That leads to steady growth and a reputation as the best managed company in the country. The CEO, Theodore Rachmat, was especially highly regarded," commented the magazine about the Indonesian winner. (hen)