PSE president and Miss Earth founder Ramon Monzon
The Philippine Stock Exchange elected on Saturday Ramon Monzon, a Certified Public Accountant and a successful businessman who founded the Miss Earth global beauty pageant, as its new president and chief executive officer.
Monzon, 67, took over the post vacated by former investment banker Hans Sicat, who will continue to help the PSE as “chief integration officer” amid the bid of the local bourse to take over the Philippine Dealing System Holdings Group (PDS). This also marks the changing of the guards in PSE after Sicat’s six-year leadership.
The new PSE chief is “hopeful” that the P2-billion purchase of PDS by the local bourse could finally happen within this year. The prospective union between the PSE and PDS – which is happening 25 years after the old Makati and Manila stock exchanges merged to create PSE – is seen to unify capital market infrastructure in the country in line with global best practices.
In introducing Monzon to the media after the organizational meeting conducted right after the PSE stockholders meeting on Saturday, PSE chair Jose Pardo said Monzon was someone who could “take the numbers,” “sleep with numbers” and interpret them well.
“He is a seasoned accountant and CPA who invested time in SGV and was a protégé of the venerable (SGV founder) Wash Sycip,” Pardo said.
When the PSE had to tighten belts when stock market volumes were curbed by global market turmoil, Monzon had done well chairing the PSE’s audit committee, Pardo said.
“I’m a believer in change and here, a timely change is happening at the PSE as we begin to put up new products and really try to earn our reputation as Southeast Asia’s best exchange,” Pardo said.
PSE president Ramon Monzon holds his first press briefing with PSE chief operating officer Roel Refran on May 6, 2017
Monzon has been immersed into the PSE in the last two years as independent director since May 2, 2015 and as chair of the PSE’s audit committee.
Formerly a partner at SyCip Gorres Velayo & Co. (SGV), Monzon finished his BA degree major in Political Science at the Ateneo de Manila University and obtained his BS degree major in Accounting from the Manuel L. Quezon University. He also holds an MBA degree from the University of Chicago.
Monzon is the founder and president of Carousel Productions Inc., the organization that owns and runs the Miss Earth beauty contests. This organization has developed Miss Earth into a global brand which now grants franchises in 84 countries.
During the stockholders meeting, the PSE also elected two new board members: Francisco Duque, the new chair of pension fund Government Service Insurance System and former banker Vicente Panlilio.
Asked what he would like to accomplish during his term, Monzon said the first would be to obtain regulatory approvals for the PSE’s acquisition of PDS, the holding firm for fixed-income trading platform Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. (PDEx), Philippine Depositary and Trust Corp. (PDTC) and Philippine Securities Settlement Corp.
“When that is accomplished, the bigger and even more difficult task will be how to integrate the PDS in the PSE umbrella in order to get the synergies,” he said.
To execute its takeover bid, the PSE needs clearance from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Philippine Competition Commission.
Monzon also talked about developing new products, including hedging mechanisms and promoting some of the PSE’s new products like the window for US dollar-denominated securities.