T. M. Zakir Machmud is a former Director of Institute for Economic and Social Research, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia. Currently, he is an active lecturer in the Department of Economics, University of Indonesia, which includes subjects such as Macroeconomics, Microeconomics and Industrial Economics.
Before he was appointed as Director of LPEM, he was a researcher at the institute for more than 10 years. During his time, he has been involved in various research activities, in areas such as industrial organization, trade, competition policy and socio-economic (i.e. health economics, disaster recovery, etc.).
He holds a PhD in economics from University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. After returning back to Indonesia, he was a visiting fellow at the Population Studies and Training Center (PSTC) Brown University in 2008 and member of Indonesian delegates to study SME in Germany in 2009. He is also a member of SME policy working group with ERIA – Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia. He also provides consultancy to several institutions such as The Indonesian Business Competition and Oversight Commission (KPPU), the Indonesian Competition and Consumer Community (ICCC), and the Indonesian Telecommunication Regulatory Bodies (BRTI).