How GMA boss Gozon became Henry

I wouldn’t have known how lawyer Felipe L. Gozon, chairman/CEO of GMA, became Henry if I didn’t attend his 80th birthday dinner at the Manila Polo Club last Dec. 8. Thanks to Tony Lopez, chairman/president/editor-in-chief of BizNewsAsia magazine, copies of which were given to the guests. The whole issue was devoted to Gozon who talked, among other things, his big plan to “pursue the digitization project of GMA successfully.”

BizNewsAsia magazine chairman/president/editor-in-chief Tony Lopez and Las Piñas Rep. Camille Villar

Tony reprinted his Dec. 2014 story about how Gozon became Henry.

Felipe L. Gozon became Henry when he had a near-death experience as a naughty boy of seven. Ever the risk taker, he dove into the Malabon River, swam backwards, hit his head onto the underside of a salambao, and bled profusely. His hair had to be shaved so his friends could apply medicine and plaster. He looked like “Henry” the cartoon character.

Former DILG Sec. Mar Roxas escorted Gozon’s wife, Teresa Gozon, into the Manila Polo Club’s social hall

In 1975, Henry Gozon, now a dapper lawyer, witnessed a near-death experience of a corporate type. Bob Stewart offered 30 percent of his money-losing RBS, the forerunner of GMA Network, to Henry Gozon, the American GI-turned-entrepreneur’s corporate lawyer. Having just bought a house in Urdaneta, Henry had little savings to seize the offer…

It has been a long story, told and retold (better in the business section), how Henry shepherded the “dying” network to its “unrivalled niche today through masterful strategy, savvy programming, first-rate marketing, and judicious cost control…”

That’s why hitting “80” was truly meaningful.

One of the performers Derrick Monasterio with girlfriend Livia Dumont, a Brazilian model

At the Dec. 8 dinner, the program hosted by Paolo Contis and girlfriend LJ Reyes featured special numbers by Julie Anne San Jose, Aicelle Santos, Mark Bautista, Lani Misalucha and Derrick Monasterio (who came with his girlfriend, Brazilian model Livia Dumont).

Gozon with his grandchildren

Incidentally, in his tribute to Henry in his Dec. 2 column Hindsight in STAR, F. Sionil Jose revealed this: On the table is GMA’s plan to go into movie production. Gozon sees a lot of future in the industry. He has been observing what the Koreans have done. On a recent trip to Seoul he saw how they make their world famous telenovelas, the structures that they set up, the sets that could be used for the whole year, the latest technology they have developed.

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