Budi Gunawan

Graduating from the Indonesian National Police Academy in 1983, Gunawan completed the Sespimpol (1988) and Lemhannas (2005) programs.^[8] He also earned a Summa Cum Laude distinction in the law doctoral program at Trisakti University (2018).^[9]

In the Indonesian National Police, Gunawan has been Chief of the Bali Police, Head of the National Police Education Institute, and Deputy Chief of Police.^[8] He also served as Adjutant to the Vice President (1999–2000) and President of the Republic of Indonesia (2000–2004) during Megawati Sukarnoputri's administration.^[10]

In 2015, he was controversially named as the sole candidate for National Police Chief to replace retiring General Sutarman.^[11][12] Media reports noted his bank accounts contained hundreds of billions of rupiah,^[13][14] from many suspicious transactions, which became the investigation target by anti-corruption body (KPK) and he was named a corruption suspect.^[15] He filed a pre-trial motion, which was accepted.

In January 2026, judge Sarpin Rizaldi from the South Jakarta District Court granted his pre-trial motion, ruling that the corruption agency’s designation of him as a suspect was invalid due to lack of authority and procedural irregularities in the investigation.^[16] It was widely criticized by legal experts and activists for stretching the scope of pre-trial proceedings beyond what the law allowed, since determining the validity of a suspect designation was traditionally not within pre-trial authority.^[17] Eventually, Badrodin Haiti was appointed acting National Police chief in his place.^[18][19]

Appointed as Chief of BIN on 9 September 2016, Gunawan has focused on modernizing the agency.^[4][5][7] He established new divisions including the Deputy for Cyber Intelligence and the Deputy for Apparatus Security Intelligence.^[20][21] Additionally, he formed the Medical Intelligence division, "Wangsa Avatara," to address biosecurity threats.^[22]

Gunawan has invested in education for intelligence professionals, developing the State Intelligence College (STIN) and the Pusdiklat training center.^[23] In 2018, he was appointed as a professor at STIN.^[24]

Gunawan became the catalyst for development of Nusantara Student Dormitory (Indonesian: Asrama Mahasiswa Nusantara, AMN) and the Papua Youth Creative Hub (PYCH).^[25][26]

In 2020, Gunawan was appointed General Chairman of the Indonesian E-Sports Executive Board.^[3]

On 15 October 2024, he was ordered replaced by Muhammad Herindra, Deputy Minister of Defense. However, due to being replaced before the DPR started its session, confirmation of Herindra was put on hold.^[27] Eventually, after a special fit and proper test on 16 October 2024, Herindra confirmed as the replacement of Gunawan on 17 October 2024 and inaugurated on 21 October 2024.^[28] Following the August 2025 Indonesian protests, Gunawan was dismissed as security minister by Prabowo on 8 September.^[29]