Fernando Zobel de Ayala.
MANILA, Philippines — Business tycoon Fernando Zobel de Ayala will assume the role of chief executive officer (CEO) of Ayala Corp. by April 23 next year as part of succession plan at the country’s oldest business house.
His older brother, Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, will transition from CEO to henceforth focus on his role as chair of the conglomerate, which has interests in property development, banking, telecoms, water and industrial segments.
The turnover, which was recently approved by the board of directors, will happen after the 2021 annual stockholders meeting of Ayala next year. At present, Fernando Zobel de Ayala is Ayala’s president and chief operating officer (COO).
“At Ayala, it is our leaders’ responsibility to nurture talent and plan paths of succession. In this regard, I see myself as no different from our leaders past and present,” said Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala.
“Fernando and I are very fortunate to work with a deep leadership bench; and we are confident that planned leadership transitions such as this are critical ingredients for sustainable success. Moreover, we have the opportunity, with this move of decoupling the chairman and CEO roles, to reflect an evolving global best practice in environment, social and corporate Governance.”
“Fernando has successfully provided leadership across a variety of the Ayala group companies for more than two decades, and he is eminently suited to continue providing executive momentum in his new role as president and CEO of Ayala. Both Fernando and I have worked as a leadership team for many years now, and we intend to continue charting Ayala’s path forward in tandem.”
“It is an honor to continue leading this company with an outstanding and trusted team on our side,” said Fernando Zobel de Ayala. “Together, we have worked hard to build on the many successes of those who came before us; and are committed to continuing to improve lives and create value for our next generations of colleagues, their families, our broad ecosystem of stakeholders and our country.”