BizNewsAsia (BNA) marks today, Nov. 24, its 16th year of leadership as the Philippines’ largest and most influential weekly business and news magazine by honoring 50 of the best and brightest entrepreneurs, CEOs, and emerging entrepreneurs.
BizNewsAsia launches today a first in the country, a book on “The Philippines’ Best: Tycoons, Taipans, Entrepreneurs,” exclusively available in a private limited edition sale at P1,500 per copy. See biznewsasia.net for details.
Despite competition from foreign publications, BizNewsAsia has kept its leadership in readership, being the only weekly to score a pass-on circulation of 350,000 readers. BNA easily outsells local magazines and foreign brands because of its broad and deep coverage of business, politics and global issues, and outstanding profiles of personalities in business and governance.
BizNewsAsia is perhaps unique because it is one of the few publications that have not been harmed by the shift of readers and advertisers to the Internet.
This year alone, The Entrepreneur Magazine and Forbes Philippines had to stop their print version.
A possible blockbuster, “The Philippines’ Best: Tycoons, Taipans, Entrepreneurs” chronicles the track record of outstanding movers and shakers of business and the economy, as well as individuals who have helped improve the life of the Filipino through the passion in and quality of their governance.
The ‘Who Is Who’ profiles of the personalities and their companies are drawn from 47 years of experience of BizNewsAsia founder and editor Tony Lopez as a business writer and analyst. Tony has met, interviewed and interacted with the Top 50 personalities in the book. This experience lends authority, immediacy, urgency and an air of humanity in the profiles, making for a masterpiece of a book.
Whenever possible, Tony tries to assess how much the companies are worth and indicates the personal net worth of the billionaires and multimillionaires covered in the book.
Philippine billionaires ranked by wealth
For this reason, “The Philippines’ Best: Tycoons, Taipans, Entrepreneurs” includes a listing of the country’s biggest billionaires, ranked by wealth; a listing of the Philippines’ largest corporations in sales, as well as a ‘Who Is Who’ list of largest taxpayers.
Tonight’s anniversary event starts at 6:30 at the Garden Ballroom of EDSA Shangri-La Hotel.
Those who have confirmed their attendance include two former presidents, half a dozen cabinet members of the Duterte administration, and many of the leading lights of Philippine business, the economy, and governance.
The 16th anniversary event is sponsored by San Miguel Corp., Megaworld, DoubleDragon Properties, and Meralco.
Excellence awards
As in past years, BizNewsAsia will honor outstanding men and women in business, entrepreneurship, and governance. They will be cited for Management Excellence, Business Strategy and Visioning, Entrepreneurship Excellence, Financial Management Excellence, Customer Management Excellence, Construction Management Excellence and Social Entrepreneurship Excellence.
BizNewsAsia was founded in 2001 by Tony Lopez, one of the most senior, multi-awarded, and experienced Asian journalists. He has worked for the past 47 years for among the largest and most iconic publications in the world, including The Manila Times, the Manila Chronicle, The Times Journal, The Mainichi Shimbun, German TV ZDF and ARD, Asiaweek, Manila Standard, and now as publisher and editor of BizNewsAsia. Lopez, who turns 69 on Nov. 25, finished journalism, magna cum laude, on a four-year full scholarship at UST. He finished global journalism at the University of Stockholm, and took three semesters of MBA at Ateneo de Manila.
The awardees
San Miguel Corp. vice chairman and President Ramon Ang is the sole awardee for Business Strategy and Visioning Excellence.
Honored for Management Excellence are: Teresita Sy, chairman, BDO Unibank, Inc.; Helen Yuchengco Dee, chairman, RCBC; Isidro Consunji, chairman and president, DMCI Holdings, Inc.; Atty. Felipe Gozon, chairman and CEO, GMA Network, Inc.; Dennis Uy, president and CEO, Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, Inc.; Secretary Benjamin Diokno, Department of Budget; Jaime J. Bautista, president and COO, Philippine Airlines; and Januario Jesus Gregorio III Atencio, president and CEO (until-end 2017), 8990 Holdings, Inc.
Entrepreneurs
Cited for Entrepreneurship Excellence are: Edgar “Injap” Sia II, chairman and CEO, DoubleDragon Properties Corp.; Zenaida “Nedy” Tantoco, chairman and CEO, SSI Group, Inc.; Andrew Tan, chairman and CEO, Alliance Global Group, Inc.; and Amable “King” Aguiluz V, founder and chairman, AMA Group, Asia’s largest school system.
Cited for Financial Management Excellence are: Felipe Yalong, EVP and CFO, GMA Network, Inc.; Ferdinand Constantino, EVP and CFO, San Miguel Corp.; June Cabal-Revilla, SVP and Controller, PLDT, Inc., and CFO, Smart.
Danding Cojuangco
In a special class is Eduardo Cojuangco, Jr., chairman and CEO, San Miguel Corp. BizNewsAsia considers him the Philippines’ most successful industrialist. He parlayed a P1.6 billion of loans from coco levy money into a P120-billion fund to be used for the development of the Philippine coconut industry.
Rep. Joey Salceda, 2nd District, Albay is honored for Strategy and Management Excellence. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, for Business and Economic Management Excellence, Bayani Fernando, founder and CEO, BF Corp. for Construction Management Excellence; Elizabeth Lee, founder and CEO, EMotors, Inc. for Social Entrepreneurship Excellence. Al Panlilio, head of Customer Service of Meralco, will be awarded for Customer Management Excellence.
The Presidents
The “Philippines’ Best” President Awards go to former Presidents Fidel Ramos, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
