SEC approves increase in SMIC board seats
Lawyer Lily K. Gruba takes seat as independent director
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the amendment to SM Investments Corporation’s (SMIC) articles of incorporation which provides for the increase in the number of its board directors to nine from eight.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), SMIC said it received the Digital Certificate of Filing of Amendment to the Articles of Incorporation of SMIC from the SEC approving the amendment on Tuesday, July 9, 2024.
During the annual stockholders’ meeting of SMIC last April 24, 2024, the company’s stockholders voted to elect Lily K. Gruba as independent director, which shall be effective only upon SEC’s approval of the amendment.
Given the SEC approval, SMIC said the effectivity of the election of Gruba as independent director of the company is on June 10, 2024, the date of the approval of the SEC of the amendment.
Gruba is the Senior Partner of the Gruba Caganda Advincula Melo & De la Fuente law firm (Gruba Law). She is also a current Director of Asia United Bank.
She graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree from the Ateneo Law School in 1976 and was admitted to the Bar in 1977. She finished her Master of Laws in Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. in 1981.
Gruba was the Undersecretary of the Department of Finance from 1998 to 2001. She was also a Philippine Bar examiner for Taxation Law in 2007 and for Commercial law in 2012.
She was formerly the Associate Dean of Ateneo de Manila University School of Law. Presently, she is the Executive Director of Fr. Joaquin, SJ Institute for Continuing Legal Education, a Professor on Taxation Law, Mergers & Acquisitions and Local Government Finance, and a bar reviewer at the Ateneo de Manila University School of Law.
In 2018, she was named one of the 100 Top Lawyers in the Philippines by Asia Business Law Review.
Gruba also authored the Taxation book titled “Guide Notes and Cases on the General Principles of Taxation and the Organization of the B.I.R” released in 2016.
In 2019, she released her second book titled “Guide Notes and Cases on Tax Remedies.” Her second book moves away from the foundational principles and focuses on the rights and reliefs available to taxpayers under the Taxation laws.
As part of her sports advocacy, Lily is also the team manager of the volleyball team “Creamline Cool Smashers”, a top professional women’s volleyball team contending in the national Premier Volleyball League (PVL).