UST confers honorary doctorate on Unionbank CEO Justo Ortiz
UNIONBANK chair and CEO Justo A. Ortiz was conferred the degree Doctor of Humanities, honoris causa, by the University of Santo Tomas last Dec. 11 at the UST Medicine Auditorium. A CEO who is known for his brilliant strategy and a heart for service, Ortiz exemplifies the modern-day Renaissance man.
After having been invited to head Unionbank in 1993, the then-35year-old Ortiz steered the bank to new heights by capitalizing on the use of technology, while maintaining a value-laden governance.
Ortiz championed Unionbank’s shift from traditional banking platforms to digitization, making the bank the Philippines’ first financial services portal: www.unionbankph.com. He also put premium on the lives of customers and communities they serve by connecting and elevating them, as evidenced by Unionbank’s receipt of a worldclass ISO and the six-sigma stan- dards of operational excellence.
As chairman, Ortiz defined values formation and youth development as the cornerstones of the bank’s social responsibility and developed “Unionbank Learning System: A book for every child,” which had over 2.5 million Grade 2 public school pupils nationwide as beneficiaries.
With a passion to preserve heritage and promote literacy for the generations to come, Ortiz’ ambition of doing more to transform the community was actualized when Unionbank partnered with UST for a project to print a catalogue intended to preserve and share the university’s priceless collections to a wider world. It entails conservation, digitization and publication of Heritage Library Historical Collection and Archives Collection. Several of the digitized books are now available for viewing through the University’s Digital Library.
Ortiz has been in the list of BusinessWorld’s Top CEOs and has been named as among the country’s most tech-savvy CEOs. In 2014, he received the CNBA Asia Talent Management Award in recognition of his commitment to support, develop, and retain talents, as well as cultivate the next generation of leaders.