One of the top woman chief executives in the still male-dominated Philippine corporate world, Robina Y. Gokongwei-Pe has worked her way up from ranks to the helm of Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. which she has masterfully steered to be the country’s second largest retail multi-format retailer. Like in most Filipino-Chinese families, Gokongwei-Pe was exposed to the family business at an early age. She recounted that, “I remember we would hear our parents talk about the business at the dinner table during family meals, and we would all listen intently. My dad would always tell us ‘If you don’t work, you don’t eat.’” “During those days, most of the time it meant that if you did have a family business, you’d have to join this business, or your husband’s business.  This was the way it was 40 years ago for the Chinoys,” Gokongwei-Pe noted. When she was kidnapped while studying at the University of the Philippines, the teenage Robina showed that she was made of sterner stuff by moving on to New York to finish her studies. With a college degree under her belt, she returned to the Philippines and immediately joined the Gokongwei family’s retail business, which was then just a single Robinsons Department Store in Manila. “Ever since, Ihave not looked back for other workplaces that I would like to be in. The only other jobs I did was be a lifeguard at the dormitory pool and intern at a publishing house in New York,” Gokongwei-Pe said. Despite being the eldest daughter of John Gokongwei, she did not get her career handed to her on a silver platter because, “My father believed that to appreciate the different nuances of our businesses, we had to start from the bottom and get our hands dirty to learn the ropes of the business. He said that if you don’t start at the bottom, you’ll never know who your customer is, and you’ll never know the issues of your staff.” Thus, at Robinsons Department Store, she was made to work a receiving clerk in the warehouse which Gokongwei-Pe noted was “the only place with no air-conditioning” and that “My father even told the human resources head that I had to time in and time out like all the other employees, no special treatment!” Even back then, when the concept of gender equality was not yet what it is now, Gokongwei-Pe said her being a woman did not present any disadvantages for her because, “In all honesty, Pinoy men here are henpecked. Hehe! Seriously, Pinoy men have no problems having women as their bosses. In fact, most SMEs here are run by women and their spouses accept that.” “On the other hand, my being a woman of course has its advantages. We are very thorough, meticulous and detail-oriented. I remember working in the department store’s warehouse, where these qualities helped me thrive in the work that I was doing then, most especially during receiving of merchandise deliveries. “You see, our inventory systems were so outmoded at that time that whenever the deliveries came in, I had to count each piece one by one, whether they were 200 pieces of underwear or 200 sets of drinking glasses. Matiyaga ko talaga siyang ginagawa (I did this patiently) because if I didn’t count correctly, I had to pay for the missing items. So far in my one year at the bodega, I had to pay for one missing panty. I honestly didn’t know where it went.   Maybe someone wore it home and I didn’t notice it,” She recalled. After rising up the corporate ladder and, now, as the CEO of RRHI, Gokongwei still sees the Filipino culture as being very acceptable of women as bosses noting that, “It’s such a big deal in the West but I don’t see any issues here. At RRHI, even in its early days, we already had a culture of gender diversity even before it became vogue. So, for example, I already had an all-female supervisory team when I was still store manager and that was no big deal at that time. The only manager we had who was a guy was Head of Facilities Management.” “If there were less women managers before, I think it was because the notion was that as soon as you got married, you had to stay home and watch over the kids. It’s no longer the same now. Nowadays, more and more companies are becoming more gender-inclusive because more women are pursuing careers and becoming entrepreneurs. I am proud of the fact that RRHI has thrived on building a culture of gender diversity and is an industry leader in the country in this area,” she said. Being so hardworking and focused on the growth of RRHI as its CEO and, at the same time, being a wife and mother do pose some challenges as she said in jest that “It’s hopelessly imbalanced. Maybe you should interview my husband Perry.” She speaks as a proud and fulfilled mother when she said that, true to tradition, “My eldest child, my son Justin, currently works as a senior scientist at the Global Innovation Center of the Gokongwei Group’s food and beverage manufacturing business Universal Robina Corporation. He has helped launch new products at URC, such as the reformulated variant of our confectionary product Maxx candy. Justin spearheaded the overall product design of Maxx Honey Lemon Vitamin C. He did a series of consumer testing analysis to come up with a winning formula. I am happy to know that he is certainly learning the ropes of the business.” Under the leadership of Gokongwei-Pe, RRHI landed as one of four Philippine companies that made it to the top 10 women-led global firms with the highest percentages of women in the board of directors in 2021. This was based on the 2021 report, “Women CEOs: Opening Doors to Boards and C-Suites,” by the US-based Corporate Women Directors International (CWDI). I n 2020, Mylene Kasiban, Robinsons Retail's Chief Financial Officer, was selected as the 2020 ING FINEX CFO of the Year. The ING FINEX CFO of the Year Award is the country’s longest-running search in honor of outstanding chief financial officers organized by the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX), a professional organization for finance executives and decision makers in Philippine business, to create a body that would salute the achievements of the country’s top financial leaders. Mylene is only the second female winner of the prestigious award. Moreover, for the second year running, RRHI has been listed in Bloomberg’s Gender-Equality Index, a modified market capitalization-weighted index that tracks the performance of publicly traded companies committed to transparency in gender data reporting across five key pillars: leadership and talent pipeline, equal pay and gender pay parity, inclusive culture, anti-sexual harassment policies, and external brand. Robinsons Retail is one of only four Philippine companies and one of 484 companies in the world included in this year’s GEI. It is also among the 41 companies in the GEI that have a woman CEO. “Our inclusion in the GEI affirms our continued efforts in nurturing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. We remain committed to ensuring that our culture of meritocracy and collaborative action is anchored on our workforce's different strengths, experiences, and perspectives toward creating shared growth and value for all. At RRHI, we recognize and celebrate the vast contributions made by women within the company, as women comprise the majority of its employee and management base. Bloomberg’s GEI also serves as a tool for us to further look into the organization and how we can create genuinely inclusive spaces for all genders,” said Gokongwei-Pe. Currently, RRHI’s employee base is 70 percent women, with female employees fulfilling leadership roles across all levels of management, including the roles of president and CEO, chief financial officer, corporate secretary, and head of investor relations, to mention a few.