MANILA, Philippines - After more than a year of “courtship”, the Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co. (Philam Life), the largest life insurance company in the country, has finally received the agreement of Rex Ma. A. Mendoza to rejoin the insurer as president and chief executive officer, subject to regulatory approvals.
Officially, Mendoza will be joining Philam Life in June 2011, allowing the completion of commitments to his former employers. He will be replacing Trevor Bull, who will step down as chief executive on May 2011.
Mendoza will be turning over his former position as senior vice president and chief marketing and sales officer for Ayala Land Inc. He also served as chairman and president of Ayala Land International Sales Inc., Ayala Land Sales Inc., and Rampver Inc., a financial advisory and consultancy company.
He was also a member of the board of advisers for the Association of Advertising Agencies of the Philippines.
Mendoza has been a senior executive with Philam Life, assuming various management positions for more than 20 years prior to joining the Ayala Group of Companies.
His last position was executive vice president and head of Sales, Marketing and Training. He also served as vice chairman and chief executive officer of Philam Asset Management Inc. (Pami) and Philam Financials, and a board member of Philam Insurance Co., Security Philam, Philam Call Centre and Philam Foundation.
While still executive vice president of Philam Life, Mendoza was widely believed to be the heir apparent to then chief executive Jose L. Cuisia Jr. who is presently the Philippine ambassador to the United States.
Reporting to AIA Group’s regional managing director Gordon Watson, Mendoza is expected to strengthen Philam Life’s leadership position in the country’s life insurance industry with a view to accelerating its growth to the next level.
“Rex is a veteran in the financial services industry and no stranger to many of us in Philam Life. I am very pleased that we have a very experienced executive of his caliber to lead Philam Life. Together with his team, Rex will be able to leverage on Philam Life’s enormous potential for growth and ensure that the Company has the best products and services to meet the various financial needs of our customers,” Watson said in a statement.
But industry players said that the long-drawn courtship with Mendoza was due to the weakened position of Philam Life after the troubles of then parent firm and global insurance giant American International Group (AIG) in 2008, which saw it report losses of billions of dollars.
Under the stewardship of Cuisia, Philam Life managed to stay afloat despite a bankrupt parent firm and an exodus of clients, agents and brokers. Its overall leadership of the industry was for the first time threatened by industry players occupying the second to fourth places, a situation previously unheard of.
In 2009, the difference between Philam Life and the second largest insurer was less than a billion pesos in premium income.
Cuisia and Bull were able to regroup by acquiring Ayala Life Assurance Corp., and in turn, forming a joint venture bancassurance company with the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI).
Thus, the combined forces of Philam Life and the joint venture BPI Philamlife has reportedly widened the gap to the vicinity of P3 billion in premium income.
Mendoza earned his Masters Degree with Distinction in Business Management from the Asian Institute of Management (AIM). He completed his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a major in Marketing and Finance at the University of the Philippines (UP).