Fernando Zobel de Ayala will become president and CEO of conglomerate Ayala Corp. starting April 2021, as his older brother Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala will focus on his role as chairman of the company.
The announcement is part of a series of top-level management changes that the company does on a regular basis.
“Jaime Augusto and Fernando Zobel de Ayala will retain all their current positions, as chairman or vice chairman, in the various subsidiary boards of the Ayala group of companies,” the company said in a statement.
The changes will take effect after the company’s stockholders’ meeting on April 23, 2021.
“At Ayala, it is our leaders’ responsibility to nurture talent and plan paths of succession. In this regard, I see myself as no different from our leaders past and present,” Jaime Augusto said.
“Fernando and I are very fortunate to work with a deep leadership bench; and we are confident that planned leadership transitions such as this are critical ingredients for sustainable success. Moreover, we have the opportunity, with this move of decoupling the chairman and CEO roles, to reflect an evolving global best practice in environment, social and corporate governance.”
He said Fernando has provided leadership across the Ayala group companies for more than two decades.
“It is an honor to continue leading this company with an outstanding and trusted team on our side,” Fernando said.
“Together, we have worked hard to build on the many successes of those who came before us; and are committed to continuing to improve lives and create value for our next generations of colleagues, their families, our broad ecosystem of stakeholders and our country.”