BUSINESS leader Roberto de Ocampo was elected last July 9 as the new chairman of the Philippine Veterans Bank (PVB), a private commercial bank owned by some 400,000 World War II veterans and their heirs.
De Ocampo said his term marked “a fresh new beginning for PVB, with the aim of revitalizing the medium-sized commercial bank to be an active major player in the banking industry, not just locally but globally as well.”
De Ocampo also chairs the board advisers of the RFO Center for Public Finance and Regional Economic Cooperation, an ADB Regional Knowledge Hub.
He served with the World Bank in Washington D.C. just prior to returning home to join the Development Bank of the Philippines as its youngest chair and chief executive officer and subsequently appointed as the country’s top fiscal manager during the term of president Fidel Ramos.
During his stint as finance secretary, De Ocampo was commended for helping change the government’s fiscal position from large deficits to surpluses. It was during his term that longest period of consecutive years of fiscal surpluses in the Philippines was realized.
De Ocampo designed and imposed the country’s investment liberalization and privatization strategies. As a testament to his contributions to government, Euromoney awarded him as the Global Finance Minister of the Year in 1995. (PR)