JACQUES Dupasquier, chairman and co-founder of The Net Group (TNG), the country’s largest green building developer, said on Thursday that he has resigned as chairman, president and director of the company.
TNG is now part of the SM Group, which owns about 72.5 percent.
Over time, Dupasquier gave up his ownership of the physical assets to SM Investments Corp., but was still given a seat on the board of directors.
“However, as Dupasquier sits on the board while serving as chairman and major stockholder of the TNG Asset Management Co., and also the brand’s sole owner, he has started to feel a conflict of interest,” an e-mailed statement said.
“He believes that the companies’ current vision and values are no longer aligned with his, and that of the brand he built,” it said.
Dupasquier, along with partner Carlos Rufino, pioneered in 1999 what they called a boutique information-technology office building concept in the country with their string of “Net” brand of buildings in Bonifacio Global City, including Net One Center, Net Square, Net Cube, Net Quad, Net Plaza and Net Lima.
TNG claims to have the biggest office developer in Bonifacio Global City with 54.5 percent of the gross leasable office in the area. Its buildings are currently occupied by Fortune 500 companies and prominent corporations like JP Morgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, GE, Intel, Oracle, Ericsson and Quisumbing Torres (Baker and McKenzie).
Dupasquier is a French Filipino whose family also owns a string of boutique hotels in Europe.
“Our idea was to offer a unique concept, a boutique office building where you can go every day, you are cared for, people know you by name, and the service, ultra-personalized,” Dupasquier said in the company’s website.
“I treat each one of my tenants as individual guests and provide them a unique service by segmenting their needs,” he said.