Maria Grace Uy —contributed photo
Converge ICT Solutions cofounder and president Maria Grace Uy has debuted on Forbes magazine’s 2021 “Asia’s Power Businesswomen” list that recognized 20 female business leaders in the Asia-Pacific region who have made their mark in the business world.
“Businesswomen across the Asia-Pacific region continue to break barriers and, in many cases, expand their businesses despite the lingering pandemic. Forbes Asia’s Power Businesswomen list this year recognizes 20 outstanding leaders who managed to adapt and thrive in industries including technology, health care, banking and manufacturing,” said Rana Wehbe Watson, editor of the 2021 Asia’s Power Businesswomen list.
“They are leading the way as the world struggles with the post-COVID reality,” Watson added.
All the businesswomen cited by Forbes this year are newcomers to the list. They have been selected for their achievements in managing either a business with sizable revenues or a startup valued at over $100 million.
Uy, 53, is the only Filipina to make the cut this year.
Forbes noted that Uy had helped grow Converge—which she cofounded with her husband Dennis Anthony Uy in 2007—into one of the largest fixed broadband operators in the Philippines.
When she got married in 1998, she moved to her husband’s hometown in Pampanga and supported the family business, assuming the role of vice president of finance for the group of companies, including ACCTN (cable TV business), Savers Group (mall, department store and appliance business) and ComClark (system integration, distribution of Sun microsystems, Ruckus and Maipu products, and internet services).
Prior to this, she had served as the accounting manager of IBM Philippines from 1990 to 1997.
She was briefly assigned to IBM Asean based in Singapore, after which she returned to the Philippines and was promoted to accounting manager.
Uy graduated from De La Salle University in 1988 where she obtained her Bachelor of Science in Accountancy. She placed 16th nationwide in the Certified Public Accountant Licensure Board Examination in 1989.
Converge raised $522 million from a public offering last year and was included in the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index less than a year after its stock market debut.
In September, the Uy couple also debuted on Forbes’ list of 50 richest people in the Philippines, ranking sixth with an estimated net worth of $2.8 billion.
As of July 2021, the company’s fiber backbone has reached more than 80,500 kilometers, making its fiber optic cable network one of the most extensive in the country. Its network passed more than 8.3 million homes, or 32.5 percent of total households, with subscriber count at 1.4 million in the first half of the year.