Best known for her work as the Minister of Finance of Indonesia. She is an economist who has worked alongside a variety of President's and Ministers in Indonesia. ' She graduated from the Universitas Indonesia in 1986. She then received her master and doctorate in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1992. In 2001, she left for Atlanta, Georgia, to serve as a consultant with the US Agency for International Development for programs to strengthen Indonesia's autonomy. She then returned to Indonesia to execute her training.