ALI, IMI Boards reorganized after FZA resignation


More changes in leadership roles are being implemented in the Ayala Group of Companies following the resignation of Fernando Zobel de Ayala (FZA) for health reasons.

Real estate giant Ayala Land Inc. disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange that Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala (JAZA) has been elected as Chairman of the Board while daughter Mariana Zobel de Ayala was elected as director, both to serve the unexpired term of FZA.

Ayala Corp. President and CEO Fernando Zobel de Ayala

Ms. Zobel was also appointed as additional member of the Sustainability Committee to serve until the next organizational meeting of the Board after the annual stockholders’ meeting in 2023.

Meanwhile, Integrated Micro-electronics Inc. disclosed that its Board of Directors accepted the resignations of Chairman JAZA and Director FZA and elected Jaime Z. Urquijo to replace FZA, and Roland Joseph L. Duchâtelet to replace JAZA.

Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, Ayala Corp. chairman

This was upon the endorsement of IMI’s Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee and election by the remaining members of IMI’s Board which still constituted a quorum.

IMI’s Board also considered and approved the appointment of Delfin L. Lazaro as the Chairman of the Board to replace JAZA who will remain involved in overseeing IMI’s strategy, vision and growth in his capacity as Chairman of AC Industrial Technology Holdings, IMI’s parent company, and Ayala Corporation.

Urquijo is currently a director of Bank of the Philippines Islands, AC Industrial Technology Holdings, Inc., Merlin Solar Technology, Inc., Merlin Solar Technology (Phils.), Inc., ACE Enexor, Inc. and ACE Endevor, Inc. He is the Assistant Vice President of Business Development of the International Business unit of ACEN.

Prior to this, he was a Strategy and Development Manager at Ayala Corporation. From 2014 to 2016, he was seconded to AF Payments, Inc., where he served as head of Business Development overseeing the launch of the Beep Card payment system.

Before joining the Ayala Group, he was an associate at JP Morgan in New York. Urquijo received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA, and obtained his Masters in Business Administration in INSEAD, France.

Duchâtelet, 75, Belgian, worked for several enterprises in Belgium and Germany. He created several businesses throughout his career, meanwhile organizing approximately 50 acquisitions or sales of businesses. One of them was EPIQ, now part of IMI.

Together with his business partners Rudi De Winter and Françoise Chombar, he created Melexis, a company which yielded them the title of “Enterprise the Year” in 2000.

In the year 2000, Duchâtelet became active in the internet business. Between 2007 and 2010 he was a member of the Belgian Senate.

Duchâtelet has degrees in Engineering and Applied Economics from the University of Louvain. He also obtained his Masters in Business Administration from the same university.