Rising Pace

- Yessar Rosendar

With a career spanning more than three decades, Stanley Setia Atmadja, 62, is one of the prime examples of the success story of an executive turned businessman. Starting his career at Citibank after returning from college in the late 80s, he climbed up the ranks to Director at Citicorp Leasing, a susbsidiary of Citibank and met with his business partner Theodore “Teddy” Permadi Rachmat of the Triputra Group (No. 17 on Indonesia’s richest list with a net worth of $1.8 billion) who was still the CEO of PT Astra International at that time. Teddy wanted to expand his personal business from West Java to Jakarta and searched for someone who could help him run the business as a partner and not simply as an executive. They founded the Adira Group in 1990, named after Theodore’s father, Adi Rachmat.

“I always dreamed of being an entrepreneur, how it’s like on the other side of business by being a business player,” Stanley says.

Stanley, who got his master’s of business administration from the University of La Verne in the United States, sought a business model that could be scaled up and decided to replicate that of Astra International by having a car dealership accompanied by several supporting businesses such as multi finance and insurance. Adira became a power player with its multi finance company PT Adira Dinamika Multifinance, which was later acquired by PT Bank Danamon for Rp 2.2 trillion in 2010. Established in 1991 and with total assets of Rp30.7 trillion as of September, Adira is now the largest and most established multi finance company in Indonesia with branches throughout the archipelago.