Anderson Tanoto is Managing Director at RGE and a member of the Executive Management Board. RGE is a group of world-class companies in resource-based manufacturing industries, operating in Indonesia, China, Brazil, Canada, Spain and Malaysia, with over US$35 billion in assets and a workforce of over 80,000 people. Anderson is also a member of the executive committee of Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL), one of the largest pulp and paper producers in the world.
Anderson Tanoto drives RGE’s strategic growth initiatives and is closely involved in the group’s fibre operations and business transformation activities, specifically on sustainability and conservation efforts. These efforts include the Riau Ecosystem Restoration (RER) initiative in 2013, aimed at preserving and protecting a 150,000-hectare tropical peat swamp forest and its rich biodiversity.
In its first decade, RER has built a strong foundation. Anderson emphasises that strategic collaboration with the government, scientific experts, and local communities has been pivotal to its success, and will remain crucial moving forward.
Anderson also asserts that ecosystem restoration should extend beyond the forestry sector. There are opportunities for cross-sector partnerships to enhance the science, technology, and financial mechanisms supporting restoration. RER will actively assist governments in implementing more on-the-ground restoration programmes to meet the planet’s climate goals.
As the call intensifies for increased investment in nature, Anderson believes it is timely to consider how RER’s blueprint can be applied to other restoration efforts in Indonesia and as a nature-based solution globally. Accelerating knowledge sharing across various restoration projects in tropical and boreal landscapes can catalyse new initiatives in Indonesia and worldwide.
A young emerging business leader, he serves as Chairman for the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s (KADIN) Brazil Committee and has been KADIN’s representative to Canada since 2018. Anderson is also a Champion for Nature at the World Economic Forum (WEF). He has held memberships in the Tropical Forest Alliance 2020’s Southeast Asia Regional Committee, Wharton Executive Board for Asia, and WEF’s Global Agenda Council on Forests. As member of the Board of Trustees of the Tanoto Foundation, Anderson drives programmes focussed on forging international partnerships with reputable universities and developing leaders of the next generation. He co-founded Asia’s first SDG Academy in 2019 with Indonesia’s Ministry of Development Planning and the UN Development Programme. He has also been recognised by Forbes as one of Asia’s Heroes of Philanthropy.
Anderson Tanoto previously served as a consultant at Bain & Company and holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.