Getting to know Pablo Malay, GoTo’s new director

INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta  - GoTo’s Group Chief Corporate Officer was recently affirmed as a GoTo director during the company’s extraordinary general shareholder meeting on March 2.

Let’s get to know the former lawyer who loves to close major deals but prefers to work behind the scenes.

Pablo joined GoTo in July 2018. Following nearly five years of managing GoTo’s fundraising, corporate actions and shareholder relationships, he was recently nominated to return to GoTo’s board of directors during the company’s announcement of a new leadership team to strengthen the organization as it accelerates its path to profitability.

He brought to GoTo 14 years of experience in international law firms, where he specialized in major corporate deals such as mergers, acquisitions and financings, primarily for top-tier Indonesian companies. Asked how he made the shift to the in-house side, he said, “I first met Andre [Soelistyo, GoTo CEO] even before he joined Gojek. At that time, he was a client and we were doing corporate deals together. After he became a part of Gojek, he convinced me to join him.”

“By joining GoTo, I’m doing my part to contribute a large-scale solution to the problems of unemployment and underemployment, as well as the lack of financial inclusion in Indonesia. I was born and raised here in Indonesia and now is my time to give back,” Pablo continued.

His rise within GoTo

Within GoTo, very quickly he established himself as the architect of major deals. Working mostly behind-the-scenes, he led a series of fundraising beginning from Series F to Pre-IPO and to IPO (raising more than US$5 billion for Gojek and GoTo).

Other than major corporate deals, he has also advised GoTo on business development, not only providing advice from the legal and compliance perspective but also the commercial aspect.

He was also one of the key players in the Gojek-Tokopedia merger in 2021, the deal that gave birth to GoTo and for delivering GoTo’s successful initial public offering in April 2022, a milestone that he described as the proudest moment of his career with GoTo up to this day.

“Over 100 team members were involved in the GoTo IPO project, and Pablo led this massive undertaking. Within the IPO project, we pushed through a proposal that our driver partners and merchants should become a part of the GoTo shareholding family - making us one of the first companies in the world to have this program. Through multiple rounds of discussions, our investors understood that a robust employee stock option program was important therefore agreed to set aside share option awards for employees. In 2022, our IPO was also the largest in Indonesia by market valuation. And we did this extraordinary work during the pandemic, when most of the coordination had to happen remotely. The IPO showed the resilience of our team, including the leadership,” said R.A Koesoemohadiani, GoTo’s corporate secretary.

Pablo played an important role in winning shareholder support for the GoTo Future Fund (GFF) in 2022, an endowment fund where over 9 billion series A shares are held and will be used to support initiatives and solutions that benefit the livelihood of stakeholders across the GoTo ecosystem while also helping the GoTo Group towards its Three Zeroes sustainability commitments (Zero Emissions, Zero Waste and Zero Barriers). “Gojek and Tokopedia’s early investors were impact investors: they believed that Gojek and Tokopedia would bring benefit the society at large. GFF is our way to pay it forward,” he explained.

Pablo’s track record is very similar to GoTo’s. It’s a story of the underdog with a big dream of solving a really complex problem, and a track record of building alliances to deliver results.

What’s next for him and GoTo

Asked what’s next for him and GoTo, he said “GoTo is Indonesia’s most important digital ecosystem and plays a vital role in the daily lives of many Indonesians. I am excited about the opportunity of a lifetime to take GoTo forward in its journey of product innovation and financial sustainability so that we can do more to serve our users, driver partners and merchants.” (ANTARA)