Three new GFI heads sworn in

MANILA, Philippines — Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez swore into office Friday Cecilia Borromeo as president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Land Bank of the Philippines, Emmanuel Herbosa as president and CEO of the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and Alberto Francisco Pascual as president-CEO of the Philippine Export-Import Credit Agency (PhilEXIM).

Borromeo is returning to Landbank after leaving in 2016 to become president of DBP. She is replacing Alex Buenaventura, who served as Landbank president since Nov. 11, 2016.

Borromeo becomes Landbank’s second woman president, sworn in on March 1, which coincidentally starts the celebration of Women’s Month. She is also the second in career position to take the reins of Landbank.

Prior to her appointment as DBP chief in January 2017, Borromeo served as officer-in-charge of Landbank from Aug. 1 to Nov. 10, 2016.

She had been with Landbank for 27 years, handling various posts including as head of the Agricultural and Development Lending Sector. She also has experience in treasury and investment, corporate banking, global banking, wholesale banking, public sector lending, and lending program management.

She completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Agribusiness at the University of the Philippines Los Baños and her Master’s degree in Business Administration at the De La Salle Business School. She also completed an Advanced Bank Management Course at the Asian Institute of Management and is a Career Executive Officer VI.

Meanwhile, Herbosa was previously the president and CEO of PhilEXIM before taking over Borromeo’s position as head of DBP.

With 40 years of professional banking experience, he had served in various senior level positions at the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), Bank of Commerce and Ayala Insurance, among other corporate institutions. He handled corporate banking, consumer banking, branch and overseas banking.

He was also a lecturer at the De La Salle University (DLSU) School of Business for its financial management and business, graduate business and MBA programs.

Herbosa received his Bachelor of Industrial Management Engineering degree from the DLSU and obtained his Master in Business Administration from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

On the other hand, Pascual is taking over Herbosa’s position in PhilEXIM as its president and CEO.

Pascual gained his management experience in the private sector, where he served as senior vice president of BPI’s corporate banking division and the retail mortgage division of BPI Family Savings Bank. He also held various senior-level and board positions in BPI where he started his career as a credit analyst in 1975.

Pascual has served as president of the Santiago Land Development Corp. and independent director of DM Wenceslao Associates Inc. He was also a consultant for the Advancing Philippine Competitiveness (COMPETE) project of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Earlier, Dominguez said there was a need to reshuffle the heads of the government financial institutions (GFIs) to “improve service to the public.”

Buenaventura, for his part, said he was “grateful” for the opportunity to have served the bank for more than two years, as he is leaving the institution with a strong performance.

He also expressed confidence that Borromeo would be able to sustain the bank’s growth trajectory moving forward.

The former Landbank chief will return to Davao to help in the family business.