Iwan Sunito

Iwan Sunito’s story is one of resilience and success. Born in Surabaya, East Java, Iwan spent many childhood years in the small town of Pangkalan Bun in Kalimantan, known also as Borneo, before moving to Australia as a teenager. Iwan completed a Bachelor of Architecture with Honours and a Masters of Construction Management at UNSW and in 1994 he started his own architectural firm. In 1996 Iwan formed Crown Group with business partner Paul Sathio. In the years following Crown Group completed a string of successful projects, weathering the storms of the 2008 global financial crisis and the company is now set to be one of the largest private property developers in Australia with over $5B with of projects in the pipeline world wide. Iwan was the chairman of Indonesia’s Tsunami Corporate appeal in 2006 and has been actively involved in fundraising for the Sydney Children’s Hospital, the John Fawcett Eye Foundation in Bali and orphanages in Indonesia. Iwan was named 2015 Urban Taskforce Australia Property Person of the Year, one of the highest industry accolades in Australia. He was also a winner in the 2013 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards and awarded the 2013 Congress of Indonesian Diaspora Entrepreneur award. Iwan was appointed to the Global Indonesian Diaspora Board in 2013 and recently spoke at the 2017 Indonesian Diaspora Congress. Iwan is the chairman of the Sydney Christian Worship Centre and B2B, a mentoring programme for young professionals. His first book ‘From Borneo to Bloomberg, A Comeback Story and 13 Principles of Success’ was published in 2014. Iwan’s top- selling biography ‘Without Borders’ by Teguh Sri Pambudi was published in 2016. Iwan lives in Sydney with his wife and three children. In this episode Iwan explain’s what is what like growing up in remote Indonesia, how to create your own market segment, establish genuine brand equity & the power of perseverance.