The Mentors

Head of Academy

As a design mentor, with experiences in design thinking and visual communication, Zinnia inspires learners to push themselves out of their boundaries. Being part of the academy in Indonesia since day one, and now, Head of Academy, she believes in learning from each other and encourage everyone to strive for improvement. Her knowledge also lead her

into a strong understanding of CBL as a powerful tool.

Graduated from School of Visual Art, New York, her 20 year plus involvement in the creative industry include roles such as president for ADGI (Indonesia Graphic Designer Association) and VP for ICoD (International Council of Design). Community building is her passion, which took her to teach at various universities such as Jakarta Art Institute, Binus Northumbria School of Design. She is also an Apple Distinguished Educator.

Apart from her degree in Visual 

Communication, Zinnia also hold a diploma in Pastry, in which she happily shares baking tips and recipes.

Design Mentor

Adhe’s journey in UI/UX design has been shaped by diverse experiences in insurance, technology, and consumer apps, teaching him that great design is about creating meaningful and impactful experiences.

His passion for design was ignited at the Apple Developer Academy, where he now mentors, making the design process approachable and enjoyable. Inspired by his mother, a dedicated teacher who valued knowledge-sharing, Adhe is driven to help others build confidence in their design skills and thrive.

Mentorship has become one of the most fulfilling parts of his journey, as he continues to guide and inspire future designers. Off the screen, Adhe can often be found on the basketball court or gaming online, channeling his love for the sport in both real and virtual worlds.

Tech Mentor

Afina loves to help learners grow and discover the wonders of coding. She believes that developing apps is not just about making code works, but also making a difference in people's lives. As a self-taught developer herself, Afina is always eager to learn new things alongside the learners.

Afina delved into tech through a bootcamp, and this was done without any tech background. She instantly fell in love after seeing lines of code come to life. Prior to joining the Academy, Afina worked as an iOS developer. She also taught coding class for kids on weekends.

Afina holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and is always excited to discuss the topic of human minds, development, and cognition.

Design Mentor

She is passionate about guiding mentees from research to UI/UX and Interaction Design. She is always excited about being a part of her mentee's journey at the academy and guiding them through their chosen path.

Prior to joining the Academy, Daisy had a different kind of role-hopping experience. Graduated as a graphic designer, she expanded her world into the digital world. Starting from exploring web & mobile app design, product design, product owner roles, co-founding startups, and lastly a small bit of product management.

Daisy is also an avid gardener, when one needs to know about plants, she is the person to go to.

Tech Mentor

Dini's strong point is her ability to share her knowledge with everyone of all backgrounds and skill level. This is because she loves to learn together with learners and supports their journey in the academy.

Before joining the Academy, she worked as a Marketplace Specialist at Quantum Blue & Fulfillment Singapore, increasing sales and managing retail products on the Marketplace platform for over 8 years. Her curiosity over tech brought her to the academy as a learner and began her own journey as a developer.
 

Dini's interest in tech started very early as she will tinker around electronics, breaking it apart and build it up again from scratch.

Tech Mentor

Gerry believes that learning should be fun and explorative. At the Academy, he actively develops his technical skills while collaborating on team projects and exploring creative ways to learn. For Gerry, joyful learning leads to deeper growth and longer-lasting experiences.

Before joining the Academy, Gerry worked in various industries—as a graphic designer in an e-commerce agency, in banking, and most recently as a front-end developer in a sales and distribution system for almost three years. These diverse roles helped him gain valuable perspectives across different fields.

Outside the Academy, Gerry loves trying new things—coding, making games, playing guitar, beatboxing, dancing, and more. He’s always curious and open to new experiences, believing that a sense of wonder and exploration fuels continuous personal growth.

Tech Mentor

Gerson is passionate about app development. His explorative attitude leads him to always be curious and learn something new every day in the field. He is happiest when presenting fundamental topics and introducing native iOS frameworks to the Academy learners. Recently he enjoys digging into app architecture design in iOS app development.

Before joining the academy, as a graduate of Computer Science from Maranatha Christian University, Gerson worked as a web engineer and then switched his career to an iOS engineer in 2015. He joined Startup and Corporates as an iOS developer, making him having a wide range of experience in iOS app development.

Using his hobby, Gerson contributes to society by playing music at his local church.

Design Mentor

Leo has versatile skills in design and frontend development. He enjoys sparking curiosity and piecing together findings into outstanding narratives that effectively communicate design to users. He believes that learning by asking questions is the fastest way to learn. 

Before joining the Academy, he explored different fields through freelancing and startups world. He has successfully worked on various projects, including B2B and B2C, and helped startups raise their initial funding.

He spends his free time pursuing hobbies like mini soccer, badminton, and football console game. Currently, he's passionate about expanding his design perspective through 3D design and printing, working on projects that solve everyday problems.

Tech Mentor

Irfan's way of mentoring is influenced by Ki Hajar Dewantara's mottos. He will position himself differently according to the situation at hand, Sometimes giving examples, sometimes giving encouragement, and sometimes learning and exploring together with the learners as a partner.

Prior to his role in Academy, as a graduate of Information System & Technology from Bandung Institute of Technology, Irfan started his career as a Product Manager and then found a Start-up company in 2017 that currently has received pre-series A funding from Venture Capital, and Irfan has become the Chief Technology Officer of the Start-up. From that experience, Irfan has developed application development, leadership, project management, customer development, and software engineering skills.

Irfan's diverse family background drives Irfan to explore the diversity of places and cultures in Indonesia, one of which is by joining the Indonesian traditional arts community at his university.

Tech Mentor

Tafa always welcome any question or challenges that he encounters with learners, that is what makes him a great tech mentor. He always say yes when he needs to explore the unknown and always available for exploring new insights with the team. His favorites part in the app development when he watches learners eagerly learn and grow.

Tafa's love for tech and coding started as early as highschool, he attended programming competition to challenge his logic and programming skills, He then moved to Sarajevo, to get his bachelor degree and enhanced his skill by working in some companies as a mobile app developer.

He came back to Indonesia and was accepted as a learner in Apple Developer Academy BINUS, which made him an alumni of cohort 2019. 

Design Mentor

Nela loves sharing and having discussions with learners to dig deeper into their design decisions. Being a part of her mentee's journey excites her and drives her to learn a lot more. She believes that everyone has a chance to learn and develop themselves into better ones through a very personal journey.

Before joining the academy, she worked as a UI/UX Designer at a fintech company right after graduating from Apple Developer Academy which became the leap of her subsequent career.

On her day off, Nela is an amateur painter. Sometimes making crafts, create random stuff, or thorn up clothes and sew them into a new one.

Professional Skills & Employability Mentor

Facilitating people to unlock their maximum potential is Obed's purpose in life, so everyone can be the best version of themselves. This drives his expertise in creating talent development strategies, leadership programs (mentoring, coaching, and team facilitation), and enhancing organizational learning agility.

Obed graduated from Columbia University, New York with a Master of Arts degree in the Adult Learning and Leadership program and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Universitas Indonesia. As part of his professional credential, Obed is a Certified Professional Coach (CPC), Certified Human Resource Professional (CHRP), and ICAgile Certified Professional - Agility in HR (ICP-AHR).

Obed has extensive professional experience working in national and international organizations, such as Dynargie, Tokopedia, United Nations Population Fund/UNFPA in New York, and the United Nations Children's Fund/UNICEF in Stockholm. In his free time, Obed enjoys playing the drums, reading, and brewing coffee.

Design Mentor

Qorryna encourage students to hone empathy skills in design. Aside of her love to challenge critical thinking with asking questions, Qorryna conveys genuine concern and feedback with right dose of perfectionism.

Before joining the Academy, Qorryna contributes in developing a startup in which she cultivates her design skills and project management. Her contributions in several design sprint projects as UX designer and researcher depend her passion in digital product development. Graduate from industrial product design major guided her path on human interaction design.

Qorryna has an interest in exploring productivity tools or in Bahasa Indonesia we call it “ngulik”, you can reach Qorryna to discuss the newest updates and combine tools to boost your productivity and task management. 

Tech Mentor

Rizal is very enthusiastic with questions and loves exploring the answers with the students. For him, no such thing as a stupid question.

Rizal’s love for coding and tech began when he was just a teenager. His first line of code was moving a line of text from right to left and backward using Marquee HTML. Before joining the academy, he worked as a coding mentor in a training center in Jakarta, actively contributed to a few developer communities. Rizal also enroll to Apple Developer Academy BINUS as its first cohort and as one of the first graduate to receive WWDC 2019 Scholarship Award.

Rizal also actively shares his knowledge, you can find him on YouTube, Instagram, & Medium with great tips on code.