Susianto Tseng
Dr. Susianto Tseng
Public health nutritionist, head of the Indonesia Vegetarian Society and president of the Vegan Society of Indonesia. He organised the first IVU World Vegetarian Congress held in Indonesia and became the first Indonesian to chair the Union.
On the Council
- Regional Coordinator for Asia-Pacific
- Member of the International Council
- Chair of the International Vegetarian Union
- Organiser, 39th IVU World Vegetarian Congress, Jakarta and Bali
Who he is
Susianto Tseng was born on 1 October 1967 and read chemistry at Gadjah Mada University. He became vegetarian in 1988, in his second year, after running food analyses himself, and vegan in 2006. In 1998 he and a handful of vegetarian friends founded the Indonesia Vegetarian Society at a meeting on an organic farm outside Jakarta and affiliated it to IVU; he led the society until 2015 and has been its secretary general since. He co-founded the Vegan Society of Indonesia in 2006 and remains its president, founded the South East Asia Vegetarian Union in 2007, and was president of the Asia Pacific Vegetarian Union from 2013 to 2015.
He took over as IVU Regional Coordinator for Asia-Pacific in 2006, succeeding Jashu Shah at the 37th World Vegetarian Congress in Goa, and held the post for about twelve years. In October 2010 he chaired the organising committee of the 39th IVU World Vegetarian Congress in Jakarta and Bali, the first held in Indonesia, with delegates from twenty countries and a public food exposition backed by the Indonesian government. He was elected Chair of IVU in 2015 and served until 2018, the first Indonesian to lead the Union.
He holds a doctorate in nutrition from the Faculty of Public Health of the University of Indonesia, awarded summa cum laude, for research on the vitamin B12 content of tempeh, and has written several books on vegetarian and vegan nutrition. In 2018 he founded the World Vegan Organisation, which he still leads as president.
- Born to be Vegan — Jakarta Post, March 2011
From the archive
Dr Susianto Tseng left the International Council in 2018, at the end of his term as Chair. He continues to lead the Vegan Society of Indonesia and the World Vegan Organisation.
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