Henry Augustus Bakker-Smith

Henry Augustus Bakker-Smith is a Dutch American-Indonesian billionaire and business magnate, and Paulus Alexander Wijaya's love interest and husband. From his father, he inherited the CEO position of Great River Developments, part of the Great River International empire in 2014. He is also founder of first multinational real estate investment company Great River Malls REIT, which owned and managed 23 shopping malls in Asia, America, Australia, and Europe as of 2023. Henry has an estimated net worth of US$835 million as of December 2020. His family, the Bakker-Smith clan, is also considered one of the richest families in the world.

## Early Life

Henry Augustus Bakker-Smith was born on 5 March 1981 in Lenox Hill Hospital, New York, five minutes earlier than his twin sister Maria-Charlotte. His mother, Christiana, is a daughter of American businessman who previously worked for Berkshire Hathaway. His father, Hendrik Bakker-Smith, is a son of Fedor-Nikolai Bakker-Smith (commonly known as Opa Nico) who founded Great River International's property/real estate arm Great River Developments.

He went to Yale University with scholarship under his belt. He graduated with GPA 4.0-Summa Cum Laude for Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) in 2002, before attending Columbia University in 2008, for obtaining Master in Real Estate Development (M.Sc.RE), once again graduated in 2010 with GPA 4.0 Summa Cum Laude, while working at Great River Developments.

At early age of 10, Henry started investing in American stock exchange via Charles Schwab platform and Indonesian stock exchange via BCA Securities. He gained IDR 30 million in net profit within two months and IDR 1 billion in net profit when he reached 12. Currently, due to his job as CEO, he rarely investing in, although he still reap dividend profits from his amount of stocks. In his portfolio, besides his own company as well as related ones, he owned stocks of Apple, Microsoft, Pfizer, Exxonmobil and Chevron.

## Career

### 1991-1999 : Work behind the scenes and first hotel project

Being a child prodigy and interested with real estate at early age, he helped his father working in the company as long as he can remember. At the age of 15, he was given his first project at the company (although legally, it's still under his father's name), The Ritz-Carlton Kanimeedhoo Resort in Maldives.

His Kanimeedhoo hotel project under Great River Development opened in 1999 as he turned 18. Around that time, he acquired Ratu Plaza Shopping Center and Landmark Center twin office towers and a large parcel of land next to it from PT. Ratu Sayang Internasional's Henry Onggo and his associates (at that time, Henry Onggo was bedridden in debt due to 1998 Asian financial crisis), officially owning it via Great River Development in 2000. He then went to Yale University from 1999 to 2002, obtaining the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree.

### 2002-2008 : Post-college years

Upon returning from college, he then officially started his work in the company by developing three resorts in Bali, Indonesia: The Peninsula Bali in Nusa Dua, Mandarin Oriental Bali Pecatu, and Amanbatari Bali Tabanan. In 2003, he developed a Sheraton hotel in Brussels and Courtyard by Marriott Leeuwarder, Friesland in Netherlands, as well as strings of hotels and residences around the world, and a Somerset service apartment in Bandung, West Java. Under his helm, the Landmark Centre complex and Ratu Plaza, as well as Wisma Indocement, which his father bought in 2003, were torn down from 2002 to 2005.

In 2006, he developed his first shopping center, Great River Galleria Saigon complex in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Great River Galleria Saigon comprises of the city's first J.W. Marriott hotel, a residential building and a luxury shopping center anchored by Japanese department store Sogo (Maria-Charlotte's Great River Retail Concepts franchised the brand and operated it independently by filling it with 75% consignment/Vietnamese brands) and 10-screen Megastar Cineplex (changed into CGV Cinemas in 2011).

Following the success of the Ho Chi Minh complex, he build Great River Hanoi (a unified building comprises of 12-level shopping center with 5-leveled Sogo Department Store with Annam Gourmet supermarket and food hall as well as 10-screen CGV Cinemas, an 25-floor office, 8-floor luxury residences and 150-room Sofitel hotel at the top) in 2007 and opened it in 2010, followed by Great River Lifestyle Resort (its architectural design was inspired by Beachwalk Bali) at Da Nang Beach, also featuring Sogo, Annam Gourmet supermarket, 5-screen CGV Cinemas, and two hotels: Sheraton Grand and Four Points. The Da Nang Beach complex was built from 2008 and opened in 2013.

### 2008-2010: Postgraduate years

In 2008, Henry applied for a Masters degree at Columbia University. obtaining Master in Real Estate Development (M.Sc.RE), once again graduated with GPA 4.0 in 2011. During that period, with Great River Developments, he built three hotels (Loews Lake Placid, Clarion Lake Placid, and a joint-venture with Ryman Hospitality Properties, Gaylord Hotel & Convention Center Lake Placid) in Lake Placid, New York.

### 2006-2019: Landmark Jakarta and Ratu Plaza refurbishment project, appointment as CEO

The grounds for both Landmark Jakarta and Ratu Plaza are broken in 2006, but the construction does not rise until 2008 as Henry wanted for the ground to be dug further in order to create space for planned Jakarta MRT and its connective platform. The first phase of Landmark Jakarta (mall and twin office towers) was finished in 2012, with interior fitting started at the beginning of 2013. The mall and office space are eventually opened to the public in 2014 with the arrival of Hankyu Supermarket and Depachika, NITORI, and Ace Hardware. Following his performance in rebuilding Landmark Jakarta and Ratu Plaza, as well as the success of the group's Vietnam projects and luxury hotel properties, he was appointed as CEO in 2014.

In 2015, Henry acquired Bali Collection outdoor mall from Jakarta Setiabudi International. He then closed the outdoor mall from 31 March 2016 and redeveloping the whole complex into a luxury shopping center.

In 2016, he supervised the purchase of 50% equity of five Westfield malls in Australia from Scentre Group. Following the purchase, the stakes were then consolidated under Great River Malls REIT, which he founded and owned at that year.

By 2017, the construction of the new Ratu Plaza and its connection with Jakarta MRT Senayan station was completed, but the mall didn't open its doors until October 2018, followed by the office and data center hybrid building and its MRT connection platform on March 2019. At the same year, the last phase of Landmark Jakarta, a tall tower comprises of 25-storey Landmark Mansion luxury condominium and 158-room The Jakarta Landmark EDITION Hotel, are officially opened on 1 February and 1 June, respectively.

In 2019, Maisons Cheval Blanc Jakarta Ratu Plaza, LVMH's first Cheval Blanc hotel in Asia is officially opened for reservations for upcoming stays in 2020, but the opening was delayed to 2021 following the COVID-19 pandemic. In that same year, following the government's announcement of moving its capital from Jakarta to Borneo Island, he and The Walt Disney Company started its negotiations to develop Borneo Disney Resort, located at the outskirts of the new capital. Previously, he had acquired unused land on the outskirts of Balikpapan-Samarinda Toll Road from 2015 to 2020, now covering up to 15,000 hectares of land. The land owned by the company is located at the back of the new national capital and developing areas.

### 2020-2022: The Great River Shopping Spree

Following the fall of Intu into administration in 2020, Henry decided to buy six European shopping centers in United Kingdom and Spain from the administrators and inserting four of it into Great River Mall REIT. Included in the purchase are two shopping centers in Central Milton Keynes (with some of the ownership stakes given to Milton Keynes Partnership). The European Commission as well as UK antitrust entities approved the purchase and its conditions in September 2020, and the rebranding process of those four European malls was officially finished with the renaming of Madrid Xanadu into Great River Xanadu Madrid on 1 January 2022 (with exception of the Milton Keynes shopping centers, which are temporarily named centre:mk and Midsummer Place due to operational merger process. The shopping complex was officially renamed Great River Milton Keynes on 1 October 2022 following the successful merged operations).

In 2021, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) wanted to withdraw from the American market (but the company didn't announce it until April 2022), thus Henry and Hendrik decided to purchase eight United States malls from URW (six went into Great River Malls REIT). While the board approved the purchase in private on December that year, the American antitrust board approved the purchase in June 2022. Following the approval, Great River Developments and Great River Malls REIT assumed the ownership and operational roles, with the renaming process of all eight malls completed on 1 January 2023.

In 2022, his grandfather Fedor-Nikolai (also known as Opa Nico) were given a 25% minority ownership stake of Anthony Salim-owned Supermal Karawaci and U Residence, 52% ownership stake of Sugianto 'Aguan' Kusuma-owned Pacific Place Jakarta superblock, and 55% ownership stake of Eka Tjandranegara-owned Taman Anggrek Mall & Condominium complex, following a major win of mahjong competition at the Salim residence's Lunar New Year celebrations. Opa Nico also won 100% of Taman Anggrek and Pacific Place's operational rights from them, and he gave it all to Henry. Henry's inclusion process of the acquired stakes into Great River Malls REIT were completed on 1 April 2022.

> I was inspired by the Chinese New Year post of @dont\_kenzo\_my\_chindo when I come across the words 'Losers lose one of their property rights' on top of the picture of one of the Hartono brothers (#1 on Indonesia’s 50 Richest List according to Forbes) playing poker. My writer side went 'Hey, what if...' and this happened. Besides, in real life, Mal Taman Anggrek needs a huge facelift anyway.
>
> Author

## Personal Life

### Family & Residency

Henry met his husband, omega-born Paulus Alexander Wijaya at Fitness First Mal Taman Anggrek on March 2015, when the latter is surveying the facilities with his friend who wanted to join the fitness center while the former was just finishing his swimming rounds. Both of them started dating in April 2015 before getting engaged in 2016. They got married on June 2018 in London.

He owned a penthouse at Landmark Mansion in Jakarta, Indonesia; two units at The Marq on Paterson Hill and Twin Peaks, Singapore; and a house in New Haven, CT. He also owned three houses in The Hamptons, Beverly Hills and Huntington Beach, as well as a building of 13 apartment units in Lenox Hill, New York, and a penthouse in Kensington Gardens, London. The Kensington, Lenox Hill and Beverly Hills properties are all managed by Onefinestay, while Beverly Hills and The Hamptons properties are managed by Homes and Villas by Marriott International.

### Wealth

As of December 2022, his net worth was estimated at US$ 1,936 billion, higher than his December 2020 net worth of US$ 1,835 billion.