Romualdez elected as MOPC president

The Manila Overseas Press Club (MOPC) board of governors has elected STAR columnist Jose Manuel "Babe" Romualdez as its new president during MOPC’s first board meeting for the year at the Tower Club in Makati City.

Romualdez, who is also CEO of Stargate Media Corp. and now publisher of People Asia magazine, started his career in media in the 1970s as a news reporter for RPN 9 and then as anchor for Newswatch, the prime time news of the same channel. He eventually became the executive assistant to the chairman of the board of that station and later on was elected president and subsequently vice chairman of the board of the Television Corporation of the Philippines.

STAR’s late publisher Max Soliven was a close associate of Romualdez, and it was Soliven who encouraged Romualdez to start a column for this paper.

The MOPC board also elected Biznews Asia publisher Antonio Lopez as chairman; Manila Standard columnist Emil Jurado as vice president; Radio Mindanao Network’s Eric Canoy as corporate secretary; and Asiaworld president Nelia Gonzales as treasurer.

Other members of the MOPC board of governors include ABS-CBN host and STAR columnist Ricardo "Dong" Puno Jr.; Michael Clancy of the Philippine Business Leaders Forum; Karl Robert Wilson of Agence France Presse; Chinese Wen Hui Daily bureau chief Xiaoyang Xia; ABS-CBN’s Maloli Espinosa; Butch Racquel of GMA Channel 7; Meralco’s Elpi Cuna Jr.; former press secretary Hector Villanueva; Philippine Airlines VP for corporate communications Rolando Estabillo; PAGCOR’s Edward King; and Antonio Seva of AD Seva and Associates.