Announcing our new CEO, Iwan Suhardjo
Dear AngelHack community,
I have stepped down as CEO of a company that I built nearly a decade ago. I had a vision and purpose to change the world for better and I believe I have. I started this company back in 2011 with a few other wild-eyed entrepreneurs, we had no idea back then what a massive movement AngelHack would soon become. From a tiny little startup built from my garage to a massive 60+ country operation around the world, AngelHack has really been the best of my life’s work.
Running and leading AngelHack was never an easy task. We got through some rough times together and all the while as we were experiencing the best and worse Silicon Valley has to offer I knew that if AngelHack survived it would be a testament to the value this company provides the entrepreneurial community. Survive we did and every time we were met with a challenge we came back stronger than ever.
AngelHack has dominated the hackathon industry and that’s because we always put our community first. I always told my team to plan our events where everyone feels included, to always put the needs of our developer community first and to make decisions that will first positively impact our community before our business.
AngelHack’s attributes are largely my personal attributes: be curious, be inventive, be organized, be rebellious and be caring. I’ll carry this with me as I continue on my personal and professional journey.
As for AngelHack, I leave you in very capable hands and under the tested leadership of Iwan Suhardjo. Iwan is a seed / angel investor and advisor in area of IT. He has supported his investment company in various roles from advisory, business development and market expansion from Country Representative for Indonesia & Malaysia for Staple AI and Strategic Advisor for Beazy UG.
Previously, he has over 25 years of experience as a seasoned executive manager in a Fortune 500 company. He spent his professional time in the industries where he has a strong passion, namely HealthCare, Natural Resources, and Education. He has also been an advisor, a lecturer, and a thesis supervisor for a private prominent business school in Jakarta for 10 years. His specializations are organization transformation (including digital transformation starts from ERP (SAP), CRM (e-sales), HRIS, and Business Intelligence (Cognos, Alteryrx, Qlikview, and Microstrategy)), data analytics, and strategic management, on top of his vast expertise in finance accounting, controlling, and operational excellence. He was awarded as 2012 Best CFO by a prominent Indonesia business magazine related to his transformation initiative in Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceutical Thailand.
About the leadership change and future AngelHack’s vision, Iwan has said:
“I am so excited to succeed Sabeen Ali as the President and CEO of AngelHack Corporation. She has built a strong foundation and led a global operation organization in innovation management and rapid research and development to over 100 cities around the globe. I will continue AngelHack’s mission to ignite the passion of innovators around the world – create the new and making change happen together. AngelHack’s mission is close to my personal passion.
In the COVID19 global pandemic and new normal environment faced by most countries and organizations, I believe AngelHack will provide more important contributions to the new world, particularly in fostering digital transformation. My future visions for AngelHack are
To continue AH leadership on Global Hackathon, both virtual and physical competitions;
To continue building AngelHack’s brand in emerging countries, working closely with all important stakeholder’s including hackers and code developers;
To leverage its core competencies on enhancing computer science education to emerging countries and high schoolers;
To build stronger and more international talent both internal and external.”
I’m excited to watch AngelHack continue to grow under Iwan’s experienced leadership.
I wish you prosperity, love and success. Don’t hesitate to reach out if I can ever be of help on LinkedIn or Instagram.
Sabeen Ali