Tri Mumpuni (Puni) was born in Java, Indonesia, trained as an agricultural engineer, and earned a degree in Social Economics. She has been engaged in rural development work for more than three decades, and her husband co-founded a non-governmental organization to utilize hydropower for rural development in the 1980's. In 1992, IBEKA was founded as a continuation of her husband's previous endeavour. When Puni joined IBEKA in 1994, she expanded the scope of IBEKA's activities to address the many challenges posed by working in Indonesia, including government restrictions and complicated financial regulations. The company’s success comes largely from Puni's ability to navigate all levels of project engagement, from collaborating with villagers at the grassroots level, to lobbying authorities at the highest levels of government.