Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (born 9 September 1949) is a retired Indonesian Army general officer, and the President of Indonesia. Yudhoyono won the 2004 Indonesian presidential election defeating incumbent President Megawati Sukarnoputri. Widely known in Indonesia by his initials "SBY", he was sworn into office on 20 October 2004, together with Jusuf Kalla as Vice President. He ran for re-election in 2009 with Boediono as his running mate, and won with an outright majority of the votes in the first round of balloting.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was born in Tremas, a village in Arjosari, Pacitan Regency, East Java, to a lower-middle class family and is the son of Raden Soekotjo and Siti Habibah. Since he was a child, he wanted to be in the army. Yudhoyono developed a reputation as an extremely talented student in addition to being an academic achiever, excelling in writing poems, short stories, and play-acting. Yudhoyono was also talented in music and sport, reflected when he and his friends established a volleyball club called Klub Rajawali and a band called Gaya Teruna.

When he was in fifth grade, Yudhoyono visited the Indonesian Armed Forces Academy (AKABRI). After seeing the soldiers training there and perhaps inspired by his own father's career, Yudhoyono became determined to join Indonesian Armed Forces and become a soldier. Yudhoyono had originally wanted to get into the AKABRI after graduating from high school in 1968, however, he missed out because he did not register in time.