The top leadership of publicly listed firm Vivant Corporation will undergo a changeover in February this year, as its current chief executive officer Ramontito E. Garcia will make his exit from office as he reaches the retirement age of 65.
Garcia will be passing on the corporate management baton to Arlo A.G. Sarmiento who will serve as CEO while Emil Andre M. Garcia will take over as president of the flourishing energy and infrastructure company.
Prior to assumption in their new C-suite roles, Sarmiento has been president of Vivant while the other younger Garcia has been the company’s senior vice president for its power business.
On his retirement, Ramontito Garcia will continue to serve as chairman of the board. He considers the reorganization in the top hierarchy of the company as a much needed latitude to allow the younger generation to lead and usher in new opportunities for the company.
“My retirement offers the next generation the opportunity to take the helm, to bring new ideas and to implement new styles of leadership while maintaining the same core values that have brought Vivant to where it is now,” he noted.
Cebu-headquartered Vivant made it to the Forbes Asia’s 200 Best Under A Billion list in 2020, which the elder Garcia regards as an “achievement that became possible with the hard work of everyone in the company.”
During his tenure as a company chief executive, Garcia said he has been “proud of being part of the team that made this small holding company of five employees to a conglomerate of several companies with interests in different industries.”
For Sarmiento, taking on his new role as CEO comes as “a challenging one in a business landscape that has seen drastic change due to COVID-19 and super typhoon Odette.”
Nevertheless, he sounded off confidence that he will be able to “steer Vivant towards achieving its mission of bringing excellence to industries that improve everyday living.”
Sarmiento pointed out “we’ve remained on track amid COVID and even took home some wins,” while also qualifying that “we experienced setbacks due to Odette, but we saw how everyone in the group helped each other during the aftermath of the super typhoon.”
Rising from such predicament then, Sarmiento said “I am certain we would be able to get back on our feet and gain new ground with the same can-do spirit, guided by the same core values that have been instrumental in Vivant’s growth through the years.”
Cebu, which had been severely pummeled by typhoon Odette in December, is being served by Visayan Electric Company, the franchised power distribution utility in the province wherein Vivant is a key shareholder. Other than that, the Garcia-led company also has power generation ventures in Cebu as well as in Palawan, areas that were also equally devastated by typhoon Odette.