AYALA Corp. heiress Mariana Zobel de Ayala and Robinsons Land Corp.’s president and CEO Mybelle V. Aragon-GoBio landed on the Forbes magazine’s list of 20 Asia’s Power Businesswomen.
Mariana, the eighth-generation leader of the Ayala family, is shaping the future of the Philippines’s oldest conglomerate, Ayala Corp., Forbes said.
She currently handles the leasing and hospitality business of its listed property arm Ayala Land. Mariana was given a $1.5-billion fund to refresh its extensive portfolio of malls, offices and hotels.
The company’s redevelopment of eight existing malls and build of new ones is expected to increase gross leasable area by a third to 2.9 million square meters by 2028.
Mariana is also steering a $500-million hospitality capital expenditure, seen to double Ayala Land’s room inventory to 8,000 by 2030.
That includes the 578-room New World Makati, acquired in June from Hong Kong’s New World Development, the opening of new Mandarin Oriental, Marriott ‘s Moxy and Hilton’s Canopy hotels in the Makati financial district next year.
‘In March, Mariana was appointed Ayala Corp.’s managing director, 12 years after she left her job as an investment analyst at JPMorgan in New York to join her family’s 191-year-old, banking-to-property group, where her father, Jamie Augusto Zobel de Ayala, is chairman,’ Forbes said.
Mariana, a Harvard graduate who earned her Masters in Business Administration from Insead, was named senior vice president at Ayala Land in 2023.
First woman to lead RLC
Meanwhile, the Gokongwei family named GoBio as its new president and CEO of its property development arm RLC, earlier this year.
She is the first woman and non-family member to lead the developer, founded in 1980 by the late John Gokongwei, who was succeeded by his son Lance Gokongwei, executive chairman.
Gokongwei described Aragon-GoBio as ‘The best [hu]man for the job.’
GoBio joined RLC in 1993 as an administrative assistant and went on to oversee the company’s logistics business as well as residential and office projects. In May, she laid out a five-year, P125 billion expansion) plan for the company.
‘By 2030, she aims to double net income to P25 billion, boost the number of malls it operates to 69 from 55 and grow its office portfolio by 50 percent to 1.2 million square meters of leasable space.’
The roadmap also includes a 25-percent increase in hotel rooms to 5,300, doubling logistics capacity and building new mixed-use estates.
GoBio has a degree in international business from the University of Antwerp.
Forbes listed 20 accomplished leaders in the region who are at the forefront of the region’s fast-evolving business and economic landscape.
‘The roll call of trailblazers, hailing from a dozen countries and territories, includes those playing key roles in powering the AI and advanced tech boom by heading up companies in sectors such as data centers, semiconductors and rare earths,’ Forbes said.
Others are remaking family legacies, taking charge at storied enterprises in property, hospitality, retail and sports gear as they steer them toward new growth.
More than half of the women are high-performing professional managers with proven track records in fields such as banking, consumer goods and transportation. Three are first-generation entrepreneurs, including one who has launched two profitable unicorns, it said.