Edward Soeryadjaya, born in Jakarta on May 21, 1942, is the eldest son of Astra Group founder William Soeryadjaya. As a teenager, he wanted to be a doctor or an engineer. He then spent a year at Universitas Kristen Indonesia’s department of engineering and continued his studies at Ruhr University in West Germany. Although successful, he realized it was not his calling and left engineering for business administration studies in Manila.