Valdepenas to retire as Union Bank prexy

A CHANGING of the guards looms at Aboitiz-led Union Bank of the Philippines with the retirement of the president and chief operating officer Victor Valdepenas by yearend.

Edwin Bautista, 53, currently senior executive vice president of the bank, will take over the post of the 68-year-old Valdepenas, an economist and a treasury veteran.

Bank chair and chief executive officer Justo Ortiz announced Valdepenas’ retirement at Union Bank’s stockholders meeting on Friday. Ortiz said he was making this announcement “with mixed emotion” – that Valdepenas’ term as president would be extended for the last time this 2015. He credited the bank’s strong performance over the last two decades to Valdepenas.

Ortiz noted that the board had extended the term of Valdepenas several times. Valdepenas has been with the bank for the last 22 years, 18 of which as president.

At the same time, Ortiz announced two new key management appointments in the bank. He said Eugene Acevedo, 50, would become the chair of City Savings Bank, Union Bank’s thrift bank arm while Jose Roberto Reyes, 55, would become the chief finance officer.

Reyes is currently senior executive vice president for treasury while Acevedo is senior executive vice president for retail and corporate banking centers.

Incoming president Bautista is currently the head of the transaction banking, commercial banking and channel management centers of the Bank. Following the merger, he was also appointed as interim president of International Exchange Bank. He was senior vice-president of the bank from 1997 to 2001.

Bautista previously worked as senior brand manager at Procter and Gamble from 1983 to 1987, marketing and sales director of the Philippines and Guam at American Express International from 1990 to 1991, and the vice-president and group head of transaction banking at Citibank, Philippines from 1991 to 1997.