Opening Remarks

Ramon R. del Rosario Jr., Chairman, Makati Business Club
MBC-MAP Joint Membership Meeting
20 February 2012, Monday
Hotel InterContinental Manila, Makati City

Amidst the continuing challenges in the United States of America and the Eurozone, the Philippine government remains optimistic that 2012 will see better growth rates. The Aquino administration has stressed many times though that the growth it seeks is inclusive growth—a growth that will see more and more Filipinos pulled out of poverty, a growth that addresses food, health, and education issues, a growth that expands the country’s middle class.

The business community shares in this vision of inclusive growth and is determined to work with government to achieve the desired economic goals. In this arena of public-private partnership, it is essential that there be venues for dialogue, consultation, and discourse that will feed into better policy formulation, planning, and implementation. Meetings and briefings like this one we conduct today are part of this essential process at getting us closer to turning our shared visions into reality. Both Makati Business Club and Management Association of the Philippines have had a long tradition of such meetings and briefings that have made positive contributions to nation building—especially when government is willing to listen.

Today, we aim to learn from the experiences of a man and the global firm he co-founded. His insights should enhance our engagements with each other in the business community, with government and other sectors of Philippine society, and with the various economies of the world. His thoughts on the Philippines and the continuing global turmoil should provide a better perspective for us all as we do our part for nation building.

In 1983, our speaker, Tony Alvarez II, co-founded Alvarez & Marsal (A&M), the leading independent global professional services firm, which has since grown from three employees to more than 1,700 professionals around the world. A&M operates in 39 cities globally, with offices in major markets across 16 countries on four continents, providing corporate restructuring, performance improvement and business advisory services (including mergers and acquisitions transactions, tax advisory, and litigation support), and working with companies across the industry spectrum. The firm has served notable clients such as Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, HealthSouth, Levi Strauss, Spiegel, Movie Gallery, Amerco U-Haul, Cluett International, and Republic Health, among others.

Mr. Alvarez has personally assisted clients, including Timex, Western Union, Pharmor, Resorts International, Warnaco, Levi Strauss, and, most recently, Interstate Bakeries. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors for Warnaco, American Household, and Resorts International. Prior to founding A&M with co-CEO Bryan Marsal, Mr. Alvarez spent 12 years at Coopers & Lybrand, where he was a partner and head of the restructuring advisory practice in New York. Additionally, he spent two years at Norton Simon, a consumer products conglomerate, which included operating companies such as Avis, Hunt Wesson, Max Factor, and others.

Our guest is highly accomplished, highly respected, and highly successful. Of course, he is from De La Salle University in the Philippines. He earned his master’s degree in business administration from New York University, Stern School of Business, where he currently serves on the Dean’s Executive Board.

Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming Tony Alvarez to whom we have given the daunting task of explaining to us the continuing challenges in the US and Europe and what our country and our companies must do to meet and overcome the impact of these challenges.