ING launches search for Best CFO

MANILA, Philippines - ING Bank (Manila subsidiary) and the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (Finex), the umbrella organization of more than 600 financial executives, has launched the search for the country’s most outstanding chief finance officer (CFO).

Now on its fifth year, the ING-Finex CFO of the Year Award has been discovering and honoring “heroes beyond the boardroom” whose excellence, strong leadership and stewardship have helped steer their organizations toward financial stability, benefiting not just their stakeholders, but also the domestic economy.

This year’s six-month search expects to yield yet again another “Super CFO” who holds the unique mix of having outstanding professional capabilities, high ethical standards, and strong survival instincts.

“The role increasingly requires the head of finance to be many things at the same time, constantly multi-tasking, that’s why we call it a ‘super CFO’,” said ING Bank country manager Consuelo Garcia.

The breed of CFOs in the past four years already speaks volumes about the Philippines’ treasure trove of corporate heroes.

In 2007, Delfin Gonzales Jr., then CFO of Globe Telecom and now with Ayala Corp., became the first CFO of the Year awardee. The following year, Sherisa Nuesa, then finance chief of Manila Water Co. but now head of a subsidiary of Ayala Land Inc.

SM Investments Corp. finance head Jose Sio became the 2009 awardee.

Last year, the coveted Award went to Jollibee Foods CFO Ysmael V. Baysa, who started out as a lowly bookkeeper and moved on to become the super CFO of a Filipino multinational brand, steering his company through its strategic initiatives.

While the past four awardees all came from the country’s top corporations, Roberto Borromeo, overall chairman of the CFO of the Year Awards Committee, said CFOs from any private local and multinational companies, as well as government-owned and controlled corporations and government financial institutions in the country, can be nominated.

On its third year, ING and Finex have partnered with two of the country’s top academic institutions, the Ateneo Graduate School of Business and the De La Salle University College of Business – Graduate Studies to assist in the search for the top CFO in the country and promote it to their alumni.

Aside from the websites of the two business schools, nomination forms may also be obtained from the Finex secretariat at Unit 1901, 139 Corporate Center, Valero St., Salcedo Village, Makati City, or downloaded at www.finex.org.ph. For more information, contact the FINEX secretariat at 811-4052 or visit www.finex.org.ph