Tech billionaire leads 2015 list of outstanding young men/women
A SELF-MADE tech billionaire was among those recognized as a 2015 The Outstanding Young Men (and Women) of the Philippines, described by its organizers as the “most meaningful award” since it honors not just talent but character as well.
Nico “Nix” Jose Nolledo, chair of publicly traded Xurpas Inc., was the sole businessman in TOYM Class of 2015, which included a journalist, a tax advocate, a musician, a civil engineer, a lawyer, a digital marketer, a social entrepreneur and two professors.
The announcement was made by the Junior Chamber International Philippines on Monday night in an event that also marked the culmination of the TOYM going digital: Online nominations were accepted this year for the first time.
The TOYM, which traces its roots to 1959, recognizes outstanding individuals between the ages 18 and 40 “whose selfless dedication to their profession or vocation has resulted in significant contributions to their countrymen.”
Nolledo, with his deep background in next-frontier technologies and business prowess, is part of that “rare” breed of businessman with a heart, said Bienvenido Tantoco III, president of the TOYM Foundation and Rustan Commercial Corp.
“It’s not every year that somebody from business wins. It’s one of the hardest places to source a winner for the TOYM,” Tantoco told reporters on the sidelines of the announcement ceremony.
Nolledo’s career has spanned a stint at KFC, the fried chicken chain, before pursuing entrepreneurship and building Southeast Asia’s largest listed consumer technology company, Xurpas.
Today, Xurpas is trading at over three times its 2014 IPO price, valuing Nolledo’s 26-percent stake at about P6.3 billion.
Also recognized on Monday was Patricia Evangelista, multimedia and multi-awarded journalist with Rappler. She has won six international and nine local awards.
Donald Patrick Lim was recognized for his role in “digitizing” business in the Philippines. Lim is considered the father of digital marketing in the Philippines as the founding president of the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines.
Lim, who was named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum Class of 2015, is currently chief digital officer at ABS-CBN Corp.
Other TOYM honorees were tax advocate Raymond Abrea, a former examiner at the Bureau of Internal Revenue and a prominent advocate of tax reform, and engineer Jose Ramon Aliling, one of the country’s top construction managers and CEO of Jose Aliling Construction Management Group of Companies.
Lawyer Michael Almazar, who has devoted his legal practice to protecting migrant workers in the Middle East, and Rogelio Santos Jr., a Filipino-American entrepreneur who cofounded Amylex, where he is doing cutting-edge nano-molecular research in the field of Alzheimer’s and other diseases, were also recognized.
Sofronio Fortich Jr., musical director of Hong Kong Disneyland, was cited for “holding the banner high for the Filipinos who work to bring happiness to the millions of visitors who come to the park.” In the Philippine theater scene, Fortich is a respected pianist and composer.
Recognized in the field of education were Geoffrey Chua and Roderick Salenga.
Chua, a tenure-track assistant professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Business School, has been teaching for 15 years. He has won both teaching and research excellence awards at Nanyang Technological University. He also works with the Red Cross in designing strategies to improve logistics for disaster-hit areas in Asia.
Salenga, an associate professor at the University of the Philippines College of Pharmacy, was recognized for devoting “his life’s work to improving pharmacy practice in the Philippines.”
