Estrellado passing the baton

Life begins at 60 for Randy Estrellado, chief operating officer of Maynilad Water Services Inc., as he celebrates his birthday this month and formally retires from an 18-year career with the West Zone water utility provider on Sept. 1,  where he  first started in 2007 as chief finance officer.

Randy’s 40-year career actually began with the Lopez Group, first with Bayantel and  then with First Gen, and also with broadcasting group ABS-CBN as CFO, before moving on and settling with Maynilad.

Randy is among the first wave of Gen X - those born between 1965 and 1980, following the Baby Boomers - born between 1946 and 1964. Thus, unlike the Baby Boomers who don’t want to retire, Randy acknowledges that he was able to work and that it does not need to be extended further as a form of gratitude. He believes in work-life balance, and  to enjoy the remaining good and healthy life he has.

He reveals that his family has a history of cancer, with his grandfather and both his parents succumbing to the disease, and another sibling also passing away early unexpectedly. “In fact, every time I get my executive checkup, I just wait for them to tell me, oh, we found something. If they tell me, okay, that’s where it came from. So in my mind, if the 60s are my last decade, I want to be doing something else. Because I’ve been in corporate my whole life. I started working at 20, so 40 years now in corporate... So I want to do something else.”

Likewise, Randy points out, “With Maynilad, I don’t feel like I have unfinished business. Because when I came in, it was a company under rehab. Now, it’s about to go public. So I’m very proud of that.”

Randy firmly believes that he does not have to extend to teach or mentor the new generation. “No, I don’t so... I think someone younger, or not me, will bring it to the next level. I don’t think I’m the person who will bring Maynilad to the next level. Iba na, lagpas  na sa akin,  and then there are a lot of good people in Maynilad, young guys and women.”

Randy has built so much goodwill with his Maynilad family that he has been enjoying several farewell and retirement parties, with so much outpouring of love and support, including from his friends in media, thus, the despedida party with both print and broadcast journalists who have covered him while performing his duties in Maynilad.

He does not rule out the possibility down the line of consultancies, but for now he wants to live life and explore whatever interests he has.

For Randy, life begins when he retires as he will now be free to finally binge watch his favorite TV shows and stay up as late as he wants, which during his corporate working days he could not indulge in as he had to go to bed early to wake up fresh and bright for the next day.

Surprising to learn also that with his retirement, this will be the first opportunity for Randy to enjoy a long vacation compared to his past vacation opportunity only during Holy Week, and at that, he revealed – mostly going up to Baguio. He enjoys going up to the mountains more than the beach, and his physique clearly shows that he maintains a healthy diet and regularly works out. He clearly does not look or act like a 60 year old.

Thus, upon his retirement, his immediate  grand vacation will be with his family and loved ones. He has already made plans to treat his siblings, nieces and nephews to a vacation in Japan. But more importantly, he and his partner, Keith,  are availing of an “elopement” package to Portugal to symbolically tie the knot, complete with flowers and the all important wedding photos to immortalize their union. They had initially planned to hold their wedding ceremony at Central Park in New York City, but their plans changed due to the political changes in the US. Thus, after their Portugal wedding, they intend to vacation in London.

To prove that Randy did not get to travel much when he was working, he revealed that it is his first time  to secure a Schengen visa!

Indeed, Randy is beginning a new life at 60 where he will shed the corporate mantle and explore a path that most cannot fully follow in the Philippine corporate setting, which is just beginning to acknowledge alternative gender choices.

Randy has been among the trail blazers in the Philippine corporate setting to talk about his gender choice and his partner, with the MVP Group fully supportive, and Maynilad itself benefitting from it staffs and engineers who are similarly situated and have not suffered discrimination.

However, Randy admits that he has also been mindful of keeping his advocacy low key and not entangling it with his professional  responsibilities, even as he remains  very active in social media, noting that “it’s still an issue. You’d think that in this day and age, it cannot be.” Thus, he says, “ it was really a conscious effort to show some young people, that you can have a good corporate career, have a good relationship with your family, with your partner, with your friends.”

With his retirement, Randy sees the opportunity to be more active and vocal about his advocacy without unnecessarily casting a shadow on his corporate personality – Randy unbound.

Interestingly, he revealed, in the Philippine corporate world, it is only him and one other executive in the BPO sector who have revealed themselves, apart from those in the fashion, arts and entertainment world who are well-known and accepted, and are able to live their lives as publicly as they want without repercussions or discrimination.