Rachmat Gobel is a key player in Indonesian business circles as well as its government, having been its Minister of Trade under President Joko Widodo and now an elected official in the People’s Representative Council.

He was first and foremost a businessman from the Gobel family that controls the Panasonic Gobel Group (previously the National Gobel Group until 2004). It’s a conglomerate of the Japanese consumer-electronics manufacturer based in Osaka, Japan. Panasonic Gobel was founded in 1987, while Rachmat Gobel joined the company two years later.

After his short stint as Ministry of Trade from 2014-2015, Gobel ran for a legislative seat in the 2019 elections and was elected as his Sulawesi hometown Gorontalo’s representative. One of his earliest forays into governance was when he was chosen to serve as chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce for the Metal, Machinery, Chemical and Electronic Industries in 2002.

Gobel earned a degree in International Trade at Chuo University. He received honorary doctorates from Chuo University and Takushoku University (both in Tokyo) in 2014.