President’s Message

Welcome to the first ever digital magazine of the Ayala group, where we celebrate life at Ayala. A LIFE celebrates, connects, and cherishes Ayala’s most influential people — YOU.

I thank our Ayala group employees for their continuing commitment and service to our companies and stakeholders during this critical time. Ayala has remained strong amid this global emergency – and during the last 187 years – due to everyone’s contributions, and we are all thankful for the sacrifices, especially during this time. 

The last two years have produced dramatic changes that have tremendously challenged us to adjust and pivot much faster than we have ever done. We are grateful at the immense resilience and dedication that everyone has shown, balancing increased professional workloads, with the enormous demands of family care and caring for children. I know that many of us have also lost loved ones over the course of the last 24 months, adding to the immense difficulties that we had to endure. 

I know that everyone has felt the exhaustion of managing and protecting ourselves from the virus while at the same time working so hard to achieve results in our businesses. Please take comfort that your Ayala family understands and empathizes with the difficulties everyone continues to face. We have made our people’s overall wellness, which includes mental health, as among our foremost priorities moving forward. While we all recognize the importance of productivity, these cannot come at the expense of our well-being. We hope to roll out additional programs directly aimed at supporting everyone in these needs.

With all these hardships, hope may appear more difficult to find and live out. However, I believe that several notable developments in the past two years point to much brighter days ahead. It is up to each of us to ensure that these sparks of hope remain alive and that they ignite a larger movement for good. Hope, after all, is not about waiting for good fortune to happen, but striving to build a better world, regardless of the uncertainties still to be faced. 

For instance, the accelerated pace and transformative potential of technology has brought much more convenience and access to so many basic services. Healthcare, financial services, e-commerce, communications, education, entertainment, and many other industries have become much more available to people than ever before. 

We have also seen unprecedented levels of cooperation across sectors, industries, and countries. During the early part of the pandemic, there were doubts on the development of a COVID vaccine as the traditional pace of vaccine development can span decades. Today, multiple vaccines and therapeutic medicines are now available, with many countries already normalizing and many more gaining speed on their vaccination drives. These have resulted in a more confident society that is now slowly adapting to live in a world where COVID-19 and its variants will persist but can be managed.

Speaking of collaboration, we have also seen remarkable instances of persons and organizations working together to help each other. From donation drives, to community pantries, to the creation of digital and physical solutions to solve new and persistent problems, all of these bring me much hope that we are on a steady upward trajectory.  

We enter 2022 carrying with us painful lessons from the pandemic. However, I believe that we have collectively grown from this shared experience and have become much better because of it. The new year brings both renewed hope and new opportunities to make a difference.

Moving forward, we must focus on addressing the excesses that resulted in the pandemic and the inefficiencies and inequities that it has both exposed and exacerbated. Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever, and a recognized champion of sustainability, elegantly framed what will be the enduring question for the post-pandemic world. Mr. Polman asks: Is the world – both the environment and society – better off because we are in it?

Allow me to build on this and challenge our Ayala community: How can the Ayala Group continue to be a meaningful contributor for good? How can we do more to help uplift the lives of the stakeholders and communities that we touch daily and who have given us tremendous amounts of trust? 

I believe that we should continue reflecting on this as we build our businesses. We must embrace and apply the principles of sustainability in our search for answers. We must focus on businesses that enrich and enhance the world that we live in. 

It gives me much hope knowing that the most brilliant minds of humanity are thinking about this challenge. Personally, I am excited to see how the younger generation of Ayala leaders will step up and lead in these dynamic times for our organizations. I look forward to seeing what we can collectively develop in the coming months.

Once again, on behalf of all of us at Ayala, thank you for the commitment during these challenging times. I wish everyone a much better 2022, and I look forward to working, growing, and learning with all of you this year.

Best regards,

From Our Family To Yours

Like many of you, we draw strength from being with our families. It is our hope that the work for greater good that you do for Ayala ultimately brings joy to your loved ones.