Sy siblings give way to professional managers to grow SM ahead
SM Investments Corporation (SMIC), the flagship of the SM Group, announced a changing of the guards with key positions being turned over from Sy family members, including patriarch Henry Sy Sr., to trusted professional managers.
In a press briefing after the firm’s annual stockholders’ meeting, SMIC’s Board of Directors announced the key organizational changes “that will support the company’s next phase of growth.”
The Board has already conferred upon Sy the role of Chairman Emeritus, in recognition of his role as the founder of SM and all of its core businesses.
Jose T. Sio, SM’s Chief Financial Officer for 26 years, was appointed to succeed Sy as the Chairman of the Board. Sio was highly instrumental in supporting the phenomenal growth of SM and its subsidiaries.
New members of the board include Frederic C. Dy-Buncio as Director and former University of the Philippines President Alfredo Pascual as Independent Director replacing Ah Doo Lim who joined the Board in 2008 and has served the full term as an independent director.
Dy-Buncio will also assume the role of President of SM Investments in place of Harley T. Sy who will remain as Executive Director of the Board.
“These changes affirm the continuing role of professionals in executing the larger vision of SM while further strengthening the group’s good governance and sustainability,” said SMIC.
Sio noted that they are also preparing a third generation of managers who are now immersed in the various businesses of the company and they will be ready to take on leadership positions “in the near future.”
Sy, who is a multi- awarded entrepeneur and philanthropist, opened the first ShoeMart store in 1958, a business now simply known as SM, and fostered it to become one of the largest holding companies in the country.
Sio was credited for instilling strict financial discipline across all businesses that later helped the company achieve optimal results even as the whole group maintained a sound and stable financial position. He was a senior partner at Sycip Gorres Velayo & Co prior to joining SM on November 1990.
Dy-Buncio joined the company in 2011 as Senior Vice President and eventually as Executive Vice President handling the company’s portfolio investments. This portfolio has since grown to include Belle Corp., Atlas Mining, the Net Buildings, CityMalls, MyTown, and most recently, 2Go.
He brings with him a wealth of experience in banking where he spent over 20 years with JP Morgan Chase and its predecessor companies.