William Sabandar, President Director of MRT Jakarta, is currently in charge of building and operating the first metro in Indonesia.

He has over 27 years of solid experience in various development fields; including four years as Chief of the Reconstruction of Nias Islands (2005-2009) following the catastrophic tsunami and earthquake attacking the Indonesian archipelago. After the success in managing Nias recovery, he was assigned as Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of ASEAN concurrently Chief of Operation for the Reconstruction of Myanmar after the other large-scale disasters, Cyclone Nargis, in Ayeyarwady Delta (2009-2010). He was then appointed as Director of Corporate Affairs of the ASEAN Secretariat (2011-2012). 

William has served several high-level government positions: as Chief Assistant at the Presidential Unit for Development Supervision and Control, UKP4 (2012-2014); Chief Operating Officer of the National Agency on Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Land/Forest Degradation, REDD+, (2014-2015); and Senior Advisor to Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, concurrently Chairman of the National Task Force on the Accelerated Development of New, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation (2015-2016). During his duties at the central government, he actively promoted international cooperation among governments, private sector and civil society in various fields including the new global initiative on Sustainable Development Goals (Agenda 2030), a global initiative on climate change and international partnerships to accelerate the development of clean and renewable energy. 

He holds a doctorate degree in Transport Geography from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand (2001-2004), and a master’s degree in Transport Engineering from the University of New South Wales, Australia (1999-2000).