Aboitiz hosts summit for youth leaders

ABOITIZ gathered 90 students from different universities throughout the country at the Waterfront Hotel and Casino last Friday and Saturday for the 5th Aboitiz Future Leaders Business Summit (AFLBS).

The third year and fourth year college students were given a peek into what it is to be in corporate life and what their roles are in nation-building.

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The forum carried the theme, “Finding your passion, shaping your future.”

The event featured talks on different business functions and concepts by top executives across the Aboitiz Group, including Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. (AEV) president and chief executive officer (CEO) Erramon Aboitiz, AEV chairman Jon Ramon Aboitiz, Aboitiz Construction Group CEO and chairman Roberto Aboitiz, Aboitiz Foundation trustee Ramon Ronquillo, AEV chief human resource officer Txabi Aboitiz, Pilmico president Sabin Aboitiz, AEV chief finance officer Stephen Paradies, Aboitiz Foundation executive vice president and managing trustee Sonny Carpio and AEV chief reputation officer Sebastian Lacson.

The forum tackled issues on business strategy, leadership, people development, customer service, brand building, corporate social responsibility and personal financial management during the two-day event.

“We want to expose the students to the corporate world for them to be able to talk to top executives. This is also a way of sourcing talents for future posts in the Aboitiz Group,” said AEV corporate manager Mia Zamora.

Zamora said they hired 20% of the delegates of the previous four summits.

The delegates to the summit were chosen based on their academic achievements, extra-curricular activities, community involvement and interview results.

Of the 90 delegates, 40 were from nine Cebu schools including University of San Carlos, University of Cebu, University of the Visayas, St. Theresa’s College, University of the Philippines-Cebu, Cebu Institute of Technology, Cebu Normal University and the University of San Jose-Recoletos.

The first summit was open only to students of Cebu colleges and universities. The summit held the following year included delegates from schools outside Cebu.

A highlight of the first day of the forum was the talk by CNN Hero of the Year 2009 Efren Peñaflorida Jr., who used pushcart classrooms to educate poor children in Cavite.