Strategic Partners

Ernst & Young

Ernst & Young, a global leader in professional services, is committed to restoring the public’s trust in professional services firms and in the quality of financial reporting.  Its 130,000 people in 140 countries around the globe pursue the highest levels of integrity, quality, and professionalism to provide clients with solutions based on financial, transactional, and risk-management knowledge in Ernst & Young’s core services of audit, tax, and transaction advisory services. Ernst & Young practices also provide legal services in those parts of the world where permitted.

SGV & Co., the Philippine firm, has a history of over 60 years. To serve a wide-ranging clientele base that includes private and public listed companies and public sector organizations, the Firm offers the following:

-  Assurance and Advisory Business Services
-  Tax Services
-  Risk Advisory Services
-  Transaction Support Services

Further information about Ernst & Young and its approach to a variety of business issues can be found at www.ey.com/perspectives.  Ernst & Young refers to all the members of the global Ernst & Young organization, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited does not provide services to clients.

SGV Foundation, Inc.

The SGV Foundation, Inc. (SGVF) was organized in 1966 to fulfill SGV & Co.’s commitment to social development, mainly through education and the support of role models who inspire discipline, integrity and excellence.

SGVF firmly believes that the country’s greatest resource is its people, having “Investing in People” as its main thrust.  This is the reason behind the Foundation’s full support for the Entrepreneur Of The Year program’s objectives to honor successful and civic-conscious entrepreneurs and to promote role models for aspiring entrepreneurs.

SGVF is a member of the League of Corporate Foundations, the Association of Foundations, and the Makati NGO Network. SGVF is affiliated with CIVICUS, an international alliance dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society throughout the world.

Department of Trade and Industry

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) serves as the government's primary coordinative, promotive, and facilitative arm for trade, industry and investment activities. It acts as the catalyst for intensified private sector activity to accelerate and sustain economic growth through a comprehensive industrial growth strategy; a progressive and socially responsible liberalization and deregulation program; and through policies designed for the expansion and diversification of both domestic and foreign trade.

The DTI roadmap is guided by the following:

  1. Support for entrepreneurs, particularly micro, small and medium enterprises;
  2. Sustainable investments in industries and infrastructure;
  3. Strategic export promotion;
  4. Service environment and culture, upholding DTI as an agency of choice;
  5. Stable prices and consumer welfare.

The end goal is to grow and expand Philippine trade and industry as the means to generate jobs and raise incomes, so that Filipinos may enjoy continuing improvements in their quality of life.

Ateneo Graduate School of Business

The Ateneo Graduate School of Business (AGSB), a unit of the Ateneo Professional Schools of the Ateneo De Manila University, established in1966 as an institution of higher learning, focuses on students based in the workplace and who are engaged in the world of power and wealth. It is also an intensely Jesuit and deeply Filipino institution that commits itself to a unique value proposition that highlights that the value of business is not only profits but for nation building.

As an excellent business school, AGSB's thrust is to be PRIMUS INTER PARES–"first among equals," recognizing that its students come from the ranks of working professionals and entrepreneurs, who regardless of position, are considered leaders and change agents in their respective organizations. The School has been adjudged the number one MBA school by the Commission on Higher Education among 199 MBA schools in the country.

The AGSB is committed to forming excellent managers and leaders who will navigate their organizations to success while being propelled by the conviction that profit is an enabling tool to be used in the service of nation building.

As a Jesuit learning institution, the AGSB’s mission is to form men and women to become not only more effective executives and entrepreneurs, but also better Filipino citizens in a globalized world–not only smarter business people but more importantly fully human, with a profound understanding of their relationship to their countrymen and to their God.

In celebration of its 40th anniversary in 2006, AGSB has called upon itself through its Jesuit traditions and character and has hoisted the clarion call to all its constituencies to listen and to act upon–that "our country is our business."

Development Bank of the Philippines
The Country's Premiere Development Bank

In the Philippines, development financing institutions play a pivotal role in the quest for sustainable growth and development, and at the helm of the country's march toward progress is the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP). DBP, then known as the Rehabilitation Finance Corporation (RFC), was created in 1947 to provide credit facilities for the development of agriculture, commerce and industry and the reconstruction of properties damaged by the war. It was reorganized into the DBP in 1958, which marked the company's shift from rehabilitation to broader activities which include capital formation, employment generation and increased revenues, particularly in the countryside.

In 1998, the DBP charter was amended to increase the bank's authorized capital stock from P5 billion to P35 billion. Under this revised charter, DBP is classified as a development bank that may perform all other functions of an expanded commercial bank but its primary objective is to provide banking services principally for the medium- and long-term needs of agricultural and industrial enterprises with emphasis on small-and medium-scale industries.

Now on its 60th year, DBP is a major conduit of official development assistance funds from multilateral and bilateral institutions and it continues its developmental thrusts on economic pump-priming and program-type lending to strategic sectors.

DBP also seeks to benefit micro, small and medium entrepreneurs through enhanced trade and investments. To entrepreneurs, DBP extends the much-needed financial boost to help them grow and expand their business and facilitates specialized technical assistance such as marketing, research and development, business advisory and capability-building.

As a bank for the environment, DBP continuously works with businesses in advocating environmental protection amidst industrialization. DBP is the first Philippine bank to be ISO 14001 certified for its successful establishment and implementation of an Environmental Management System (EMS).

DBP also strives to make life better for every Filipino by financing social services and community development projects towards the delivery of health care, education, power, housing, water, eco-tourism, and other basic services, especially in remote areas.

Indeed, DBP is at a ready stance for the next 60 years. It has taken multiple steps forward to prepare the Philippines for the opportunities and challenges of a progressive future.

Philippine Business for Social Progress

The Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) is a private and non-profit foundation dedicated to promoting business sector commitment to social development. Organized in 1970 by 50 of the country’s prominent business leaders, it has since grown to become the nation’s largest business-led social development foundation dedicated to the empowerment of the poor and self-reliance of communities.

Since its inception 37 years ago, the Foundation’s membership base has grown to 233 companies committed to social progress.  This is made evident by the quality and magnitude of development projects it has supported and/or implemented along Area Resource Management, Enterprise Development, Water and Health, and Education involving the amount of more than 6 billion pesos.  Last year, the PBSP Board approved 187 new projects with 81 partner organizations with a household reach of 50,110 in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

Rising above traditional welfare approaches, PBSP promotes the philosophy of efficiency, self-help and participation in improving the quality of life of the underprivileged.

PBSP’s guiding principle is "Helping People Help Themselves."

For nearly four decades, PBSP has been the business sector's vehicle in delivering organized, professional, and sustainable assistance to the Filipino poor, particularly the landless farmers, fisher folk, rural workers, urban poor, and indigenous cultural communities. It has harnessed partnerships among the government, NGOs, civil society and donor institutions to expand the impact and relevance of its work on poverty alleviation.  PBSP promotes the practice of corporate citizenship, through which it has been able to help companies integrate corporate social responsibility (CSR) within their business operations, and to look at core business policies and practices in the light of their impact on society, on the environment, and on development in general.

Philippine Stock Exchange, Inc.

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) traces its roots back to  the country’s two former bourses: the Manila Stock Exchange (MSE) which was founded in 1927, and the Makati Stock Exchange (MKSE) which was established in 1963. In 1992, the MSE and the MKSE merged into what is now known as PSE.

The unification of the two entities marked the start of an intensified program to improve the operations and management of the PSE. Having been wrought out of the crucible of reforms, the PSE continually introduces operational and policy innovations in order to attract more investors and assure the growth of the local capital markets. It maintains two yet unified trading floors, powered by the MakTrade System, which assures an investor that his or her trade order is matched with the best bid/best offer regardless of which floor the orders are placed.

The reforms also paved the way for non-brokers to control majority of the 15-man Board of Directors and for more stringent disclosure rules to be put in place for the protection of investors.

The PSE is implementing the reforms as it strives to live up to its role as one of the main engines of economic growth. Part of PSE’s programs and projects aims to enhance business buildup in the country by helping entrepreneurs get the equity they need to start or expand their projects.

The PSE believes that such support for Filipino entrepreneurs, especially the aspiring ones, benefits not only businessmen, but also ordinary Filipinos, who stand to gain from employment and livelihood opportunities that follow the buildup in  capital and the formation of new enterprises.

For more details on how the PSE can help enhance investments and develop the local capital markets, log on to www.pse.com.ph.

Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship

Professor Klaus Schwab created the World Economic Forum as an independent not-for-profit foundation in 1971 and built it into the foremost global partnership of business, political, intellectual and other leaders of society committed to improving the state of the world.  In 1998, Klaus Schwab and his wife Hilde decided to create a complementary foundation, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, with the purpose to promote social innovation.

The Schwab Foundation and the World Economic Forum work in close partnership to provide social entrepreneurs with unparalleled platforms at the country, regional and global levels that highlight social entrepreneurship as a key element to advance societies and address social problems in an innovative and effective manner.