MVP: Man of vision and passion

Focus was all he needed to hit the bull’s eye of success.

He did not come from an affluent family nor did he dream of becoming powerful someday. He was just a little boy with nothing in his pockets but an unrelenting vision and now he is one of the country’s most powerful businessmen.

Manuel "MVP" Pangilinan is not just the man behind the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., the country’s leading telecommunications company. He is, after all, a man who has gained the undaunted respect of international market players.

Growing up in a middle-income family, Manny started dreaming big at a very young age. Knowing the value of education, he did not feel content with just graduating cum laude with a degree in Economics at the Ateneo de Manila University. His eyes fixed on his vision, he was not disheartened when his father told him that they did not have enough money to send him to graduate school. Instead, he focused all his efforts to get a scholarship grant from Procter and Gamble. A few years later, he obtained an MBA in no less than the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania.

Earning the confidence of one of Indonesia ’s most powerful families, Pangilinan was able to transform an overseas financial and trading arm into an acclaimed company that would be known years later as "Asia ’s corporate world of tomorrow."

What we know today as First Pacific Group like most companies started from scratch. But with Pangilinan at the helm, the company was able to carve a venerable name for itself in the Asian market.

While the company slowly made its mark, Pangilinan turned a deaf ear to the occasional discouraging words from business analysts who in the end had to eat humble pie.

Pangilinan has always tapped his innate creativity and passion to motivate his colleagues and employees to achieve critical business objectives.

To this business tycoon, cultivating a productive customer-to-business relationship is a company’s strongest foundation. This is why when he assumed PLDT’s leadership, the first thing he did was to improve the customer relationship services of the company.

These efforts earned positive feedback as PLDT soon became a more dynamic organization churning out higher revenues, due to better services to the public at much affordable costs.

A proven business leader, Pangilinan will be honored as one of the 10 Inspiring Technopreneurs by the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship (PCE) during the biggest ever technology entrepreneurship expo, the TechnoNegosyo. Slated on Sept. 14 and 15 at the World Trade Center, it is spearheaded by Presidential Consultant for Entrepreneurship Jose Concepcion III and managing director of MDi Myla Villanueva.