Ernie Lopez - keeping the Lopez legacy

MANILA, Philippines - Hailing from a family of media moguls, Ernesto Miguel “Ernie” Lopez has always been aware that his family name bears such tremendous weight. However, after two decades of sailing through the rough and smooth shores of the publishing industry, he was able to withstand all the challenges of time, and the pressure of having the Lopez pedigree no longer haunts him.

As the president and CEO of ABS CBN Publishing Inc., Ernie was able to lead a team of talented people to help him grow the company. From his very first venture into publishing in 1992, he has made a remarkable track record in his career and has given a multi-million value to the company. “Media itself is a responsibility. We reach and communicate messages to a great number of people so it’s very important what kind of message we communicate. Our words have such a powerful effect,” says Ernie.

In this modern age when people, especially the younger ones, have constantly been jumping on the digital bandwagon and many things — even morals — have continued obsolescing, Ernie has proven that he is a wise strategist in his own right.

For Ernie, it’s always important to keep up with the trends and continually innovate and reinvent a company’s products and services. “It’s tough but we have to constantly innovate. We have to always think of what can we do to improve our products. You have to keep your ears close to the ground and keep up with the trends.”

Just last year, ABS CBN Publishing’s Metro Magazine won the Best Use of Screen Tablet Platform at the Asian Publishing Awards in Bangkok — a triumph that continues to define the kind of leadership that Ernie puts forth in the company.

Ernie behind the pages

Traces of a carefree and lively kid still linger on Ernie. As a young man, he already made sports an integral part of his life, especially because he comes from a family of sports enthusiasts. He attributes his love for sports to his mother who’s a multi-awarded athlete. “My mom who’s 81-years old still plays tennis everyday and she’s competitive in four sports — golf, tennis, pelota and water skiing. She was on the Philippine water ski team. We were exposed to a lot of sports since we’re very young. My parents enjoyed a lot of their sports together so that’s how we got into sports,” he enthuses.

Since then, Ernie has gotten involved in different sports and outdoor activities such as scuba diving, underwater hockey, squash, tennis, mountain climbing, rock climbing, skydiving, wakeboarding, and just any sport he could think of. Lately he’s been more active in triathlon.

During the early years of their marriage, he and his wife would always fly to different places outside the country such as Galapagos and Macau where they went scuba diving. Ernie also explores many different places within the country and elsewhere abroad with his family.

To this day, Ernie continues to live by his passion for sports and he’s now joined by his wife and children in many of his activities. Every time he gets chance to take a break from work, he spends time with his kids and more often, they play different sports together.

In fact, they have made outdoor sports a favorite bonding activity. He says, “My son and I have done a lot of mountain climbing, that’s something we enjoy doing together. We’ve gone up Mount Pulag, Mount Maculot, and Taal.”

Aside from that, Ernie and his kids also enjoy surfing on the waves of Baler, which for him is one of the best places to go surfing.

“Most of my travels are all based on the activities that I’m going to do so I carry a lot of stuff with me. The most basic items I bring are sun block and a pair of running shoes,” he says.

As a frequent traveller, Ernie makes sure that he has everything that he needs wherever he’s headed to. It’s been part of his travel routine to pack a lot of things that could be later used for activities like tennis and swimming, among others.

To make things more convenient and easier for him, Ernie has almost all his stuff packed in his Victorinox luggage. Whether he travels for business or pleasure, the new Victorinox Spectra serves as a perfect travel gear for him. Made of very lightweight durable material — 100-percent pure Bayer polycarbonate, the Spectra has an eight-wheel construction that gives him a 360-degree maneuverability to navigate tight spaces with ease. More than that, its handle locks into three different height positions so that anyone in the family can use it.

Ernie, the young visionary

Amid the fast-changing world and the unpredictability of things happening these days, Ernie makes sure that he’s always up-to-date to the trends and other developments around him. In the publishing world, the competition is becoming much tighter than ever before which makes him more open to changes and other adjustments to stay ahead in the game.

However, living by the right values is what he considers as the most important among other factors. “The ubiquity of information- it does influence your values because it kind of figures out quickly what kind of person you are,” he says.

For young and promising entrepreneurs and talents, he leaves them with this note, “Think big because it’s a waste of time to think small. You only have one life to live so think as big as you can. Your values are important to who you are as a person. Dedicate your life to service and for me there’s no higher service than dedicating it to God.”