‘Quality time’ on the green

The sixth MVP Media Golf Cup is an annual tournament participated in by media personalities and key executives from companies under the leadership of Manuel V. Pangilinan.  These companies include PLDT, First Pacific, Metro Pacific Investments Corp., Meralco, Smart Communications, Voyager, Maynilad, Philex Mining, TV5, Light Rail Manila Corp. and Metro Pacific Tollways Corp.

Spearheaded by PLDT, the event provides a platform for the different companies’ key decision-makers to touch base with newspaper editors, columnists, TV and radio anchors during a friendly game of golf.

At the core of the sixth MVP Media Golf Cup is its unique set-up: every flight or grouping has at least one playing executive, matched with two to three media players. This separates the event from all the other media tournaments in the golf circuit, as it redefines “quality time” on the green with a more meaningful interaction for the players.

There is also a silent teamwork that binds the media players as they do their best to win the Perpetual Trophy in the Print versus Broadcast category, where all their scores are aggregated. For the sixth MVP Media Golf Cup, the Print Media team prevailed.

As it aims to be bigger and better than its previous runs, the recent golf cup also found a new home at the Manila Golf and Country Club in Makati City. 

For the Executive division the winners were TV5 president Chot Reyes, lowest gross champion; PBA TNT team manager Virgil Villavicencio, champion; MVP Group of Companies media bureau head Mike Toledo, first runner-up; and Smart Communications’ Ethan Koe Sanchez, second runner-up.

For the Media division, the winners were STAR columnist Alex Magno, overall net champion; Business Mirror columnist Dino Datu, lowest gross champion; Business Mirror publisher Anthony Cabangon, champion; STAR Sports editor Lito Tacujan, first runner-up; and Inquirer’s Jun Engracia, second runner-up. The Ladies division champion was DZRH news anchor Milky Rigonan.

Media players had a grand time winning raffle prizes, too. A brand-new Toyota Altis was also raffled off.

Mirèio welcomes new chef de cuisine

Raffles Makati chef de cuisine Hervé Clair.

Raffles Makati’s signature brasserie-style restaurant Mirèio recently introduced Hervé Clair as its new chef de cuisine.

Clair, a native of Provence, started his career with an apprenticeship in Les Pins Penches, a restaurant in Château de Toulon in France. He continued to develop his passion for the culinary arts by training under Alain Ducasse in three acclaimed Ducasse restaurants — La Bastide De Moustier in Provence, Aux Lyonnais in Paris and Le Relais du Parc at the Hotel Marriott Paris.

After seven years with the Alain Ducasse Enterprise, Clair went on to become the sous chef in the Michelin-starred restaurant Les Fables de la Fontaine in Paris. In 2014, he first joined the hotel industry at the charming Hotel & Spa L’Alta Peyra in Saint Véran, France. 

Prior to joining the Raffles Makati, he was chef adjoint at the La Maison 1888 in Danang Sun Peninsula Resort in Vietnam, created by the legendary award-winning chef Pierre Gagnaire, whom Clair worked closely with.

With his background and expertise in French cuisine, Clair will offer exciting new classic and creative dishes with Provencal spirit.

(Visit www.mireioatraffles.com. )

Hub of excellence

AXA head of solution delivery Myriam Moufakkir, Group IS Paris chief information officer Dirk Marzluf and AXA head of IT support functions Ash Shah.

Leading global insurer AXA Philippines inaugurated its shared services center in Manila with French Ambassador Hervé Clair, and AXA Group COO Astrid Stange and Asian markets CEO Gordon Watson, who both flew in for the event.

This new shared service center, together with another one in Malaysia, is envisioned to be the IT hub for AXA in Asia, and later to Japan. They will eventually stand as central hubs of actuarial expertise, serving as centers of excellence in areas of actuarial product pricing and valuation, providing guidance to the Asia entities in improving processes and services. They expect to generate around 300 jobs for this new shared services center.

Watson said, “We have massive ambitions for AXA in Asia. We want to leverage on the brand and with the shared service hubs, we intend to achieve this by offering innovations in customer service.”

AXA Philippines president and CEO Rahul Hora said, “The opening of this shared service center couldn’t have come at a better time. We want to make one more mark in the AXA world and the BPO industry in the Philippines through IT transformation and enablement, thus, doing our share in nation-building.”

(Follow me on Instagram @pepperteehankee.)