2019 ING FINEX CFO of the Year: Building a Platform for Sustainable Growth

In the real estate industry, it is not just the contractors who do the heavy lifting. The Chief Finance Officer (CFO) and his team of number crunchers are also tasked to continually build the company’s financial muscle to ensure its sustainable growth.

In the case of Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI), the Philippines’ largest property developer, the CFO is a builder who wears many “hard hats.” Aside from being the CFO, Chief Compliance Officer, and Treasurer, Augusto Bengzon is also a builder of teams: leading 17 CFOs across the Ayala Land group of companies, who in turn, manage a force of over 600 finance professionals.

JOURNEY TO CFO

Before he was thrust into the role, Bengzon admitted he was clueless on the career he would pursue after obtaining a business management degree from the Ateneo de Manila University. His father suggested that he apply for a job in a bank, thinking this to be the best way to understand the rigors of business.

He landed a job as a staff assistant in a local bank then joined a foreign bank as a management associate after earning an MBA degree. He ended up being a banker for 18 years, during which he was placed in various roles and functions.

Lured by the prospect of working for the property giant that engineered the growth of the country’s leading economic centers such as the Makati CBD and Bonifacio Global City, he joined Ayala Land in 2004. “The idea that I would be applying all that I had learned in banking as the Treasurer of the leading property developer in the country was like a dream come true,” Bengzon said.

Twelve years later, he found himself taking on a bigger responsibility when he was offered the CFO role. “I was already perfectly content with my role in the company. I was also a bit wary of