Aghnia Dima Rochmawati MPA ’26 Recognized as a 2024 Rising Star

Aghnia Rochmawati, an MPA candidate at Columbia SIPA, has been named one of the “2024 Women of the Future 50 Rising Stars in ESG” by Women of the Future. This award recognizes female leaders under 35 who are making significant contributions worldwide in the fields of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) through their leadership, creativity, and innovation.

Rochmawati’s path in ESG has been deeply personal and transformative. When asked what this award means to her she said, “This award has deepened my passion in ESG because I was raised by a single mother, who was the sole breadwinner for our family.” Growing up in Java Island, Indonesia with her mother, who worked in a male-dominated financial sector while raising two daughters, Rochmawati witnessed firsthand the challenges women face in such environments. “She struggled a lot to take care of me and my sister,” she recalled.

Rochmawati’s early steps in the ESG field began while serving as a youth advisory board member for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), where she developed her expertise in gender and climate issues. She later became a gender and climate finance officer at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), leading projects that integrated gender equality into climate resilience and sustainable development initiatives.

On one such project, she worked with women farmers on Java Island who have been significantly impacted by climate change yet lack decision-making power in the agricultural sector. “Most of the agriculture groups consist of male farmers,” she remembered. Rochmawati said that understanding the impact the women farmers were still able to make strengthened her commitment to advancing ESG practices that prioritize gender equality and environmental resilience.

After working with UNDP, Rochmawati joined East Ventures, one of Southeast Asia’s largest venture capital firms, as their first ESG specialist. She spearheaded the development of the firm’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policy and established a sustainable investment framework that monitored ESG practices across startups. 

Upon joining East Ventures, Rochmawati quickly identified areas where ESG principles could create value within the firm’s investment strategy. She worked closely with various teams to incorporate environmental and social criteria into their due diligence processes, ensuring that each startup in their portfolio aligned with sustainable and ethical practices. By embedding these considerations into investment decisions, she aimed to foster a culture of responsibility and resilience across the firm’s operations. 

“It was a big pivot from UNDP to venture capital,” she said, describing the shift from public to private sector work. By challenging a “business as usual” mindset, Rochmawati successfully convinced investment professionals to adopt more sustainable and inclusive practices. “I managed to make them confident in this topic, and they adopted new strategies and policies in their business processes,” she said of her efforts to bring ESG principles into an environment traditionally centered on profit.

As an Atlantic Fellow and a published author on gender-responsive climate finance and SDG investing, Rochmawati continues to advance ESG initiatives across sectors and build global impact for her work. As she looks to the future, Rochmawati sees herself continuing down her current path. “I aspire to be the ESG climate and gender equality advocate in any company that I will work for in the future,” she shared, reaffirming her commitment to the values that have shaped her career thus far.

In her journey, Rochmawati has witnessed firsthand the power of ESG initiatives to create positive change, especially when addressing the intersecting challenges of climate action and gender equality. Through her work, she seeks to bridge gaps, encourage cross-sectoral collaboration, and elevate the importance of responsible investing that benefits both people and the planet. Her dedication to this path underscores her ambition to leave a meaningful legacy in the ESG space.

“Each of us has our own stories to tell and our own power to make a difference,” she said. “Keep believing in yourself, and any small thing you can do actually makes a difference.”