JUDGES

Each year, ALB invites an independent judging panel of senior and expert legal industry leaders from various sectors corresponding to the diverse list of award categories. ALB is pleased to introduce some of the distinguished judges. The rest of the panel will be revealed on the evening of the awards.

April Raimundo
Legal and Compliance Director, Greystar

April Raimundo is the Legal and Compliance Director for Greystar’s Asia-Pacific business and its first employee in Singapore. In this role, she oversees Greystar’s Code of Conduct and regulatory compliance program in the region. In addition, April spearheads legal structuring, investor documentation, and acquisition activities as Greystar, the global leader in residential housing starts to invest across the region. Prior to Greystar, April spent 8 years at EFA Group as Chief Legal and Compliance officer and served as a member of the company’s executive committee. During her private practice career, April was in the corporate and commercial group of Quisumbing Torres, a member firm of Baker McKenzie.

April is qualified to practice law in England, Wales, and the Philippines. She was named one of 5 in house counsels in the 2016 edition of ALB’s 40 Under 40 Asia’s best young lawyers. She holds a Juris Doctor from the University of the Philippines where she was awarded the Dean's Medal for Academic Excellence. She also has a BS in Legal Management from the Ateneo de Manila University and attended executive development courses in various institutions including Harvard Business School. She sits in the International Relations Committee and Public Law Help Committee of the Law Society of Singapore. 

Barney Almazar
Head of Commercial Practice, Gulf Law Philippines, UAE, UK and Portugal

Barney Almazar is the Philippines' inaugural ALB Young Lawyer of the Year in 2016 and Young Lawyer of the Year for South East Asia in 2017.

He is the head of the commercial practice of Gulf Law in the Philippines, UAE, UK and Portugal.

Just recently, he was appointed as chief counsel for a US$ 1.5 billion acquisition of a payment aggregator group with operations in the Middle East and Europe. He is also teaching business law at Ajman University in the United Arab Emirates. 

Barney Almazar was awarded as one of Philippines’ The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) for law and commended by the Philippine Senate for his contribution in protecting the interests of more than 3 million overseas Filipino workers. 

Ben Ferdinand Cruz
Asia Cluster ERC Head, Sandoz

Has extensive legal training and professional work experience for 14+ years now as a Commercial Law practitioner and Compliance and Business Ethics expert in various corporate settings: both in private local and multinational corporations (MNCs), the Philippines’ SEC, government-owned and controlled corporation, and also in the academe.

Experienced country Legal & Compliance professional with a demonstrated history of working in the pharmaceutical industry, and is currently responsible for countries in Asia, which include Bangladesh, Maldives & Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines as ASIA Cluster Ethics, Risk & Compliance (ERC) Head for Sandoz.

As an in-country Legal head in the Philippines, Ben is skilled in corporate legal work and housekeeping, contracts & negotiation, taxation, risk management, business ethics compliance, banking and securities, labor and employee relations, private international business transactions, foreign investments, due diligence, data privacy and protection, antitrust, M&A, immigration, government tender, among others.

Edgar S. Tordesillas
General Counsel, Sun Life Financial Philippines

Atty. Edgar S. Tordesillas has been appointed as General Counsel for the Sun Life Financial Philippines group effective on 03 March 2011. 

As General Counsel, Atty. Tordesillas is a member of Sun Life’s Philippine Leadership Team and has overall responsibility for the legal, compliance, privacy, corporate secretarial and government affairs of Sun Life Financial Philippines.  He provides professional advice and strategic counsel on both local and international bases in the interest of the group, and champions increased awareness and commitment towards mitigating legal and reputation risks.  

Ed has worked mostly with various financial institutions (insurance, private equity firms) after his stint with private law firms.  Prior to joining Sun Life, Ed was the Vice President for Legal and Compliance of Manulife Philippines. He has held similar posts at Asian Life and General Assurance Corporation (formerly GE Life), and Asian Life Financial Assurance Corporation.  He was the Executive Director of All Asia Capital Managers, Inc., where he was heavily involved in legal due diligence on prospective investments.  He also worked for ATR Kim Eng Partners, Inc. as Trust Counsel where he took the lead role in the development of the company's first Unit Investment Trust Fund.  He worked as an associate at De Borja Medialdea Ata Bello Guevarra and Serapio Law Offices and Bernas Law Office before moving to the financial services industry. 

Ed graduated from the University of the Philippines with a B.S. Business Administration degree (1981).  He obtained his Bachelor of Laws from the Ateneo de Manila University (1990), and was admitted to the Philippine Bar in 1991.  He was granted the Chartered Financial Analyst designation by the CFA Institute, USA, in 2000.

Fernando S. Penarroyo
Group Legal Counsel and General Manager for Business Development, Polyard Petroleum International Group Co. Ltd.

FERNANDO S. PEÑARROYO is the Group Legal Counsel and General Manager for Business Development of Polyard Petroleum International Group Co. Ltd, a Hong Kong-listed company which operates the Alegria petroleum project, the Philippines’ first and only commercial onshore oil development and production. He is also the Managing Partner at the Peñarroyo and Palanca Law Offices.

He serves as the Presidential Adviser on Energy for the Integrated Bar of the Philippines. He is also the Vice President of the Philippine Mining and Exploration Association and former Director of the International Geothermal Association. He was former President of the Geological Society of the Philippines. He is actively involved as officer and legal counsel in industry associations like the National Geothermal Association of the Philippines, Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, Philippine Petroleum Association of the Upstream Industry, and Philippine Chamber of Coal Mines. He lectured at the Asian Institute of Technology, MBA-JD Program of the De La Salle-FEU Institute of Law, and the University of the Philippines National Institute of Geological Sciences.

He obtained his Bachelor of Science in Geology and Bachelor of Laws from the University of the Philippines, and Master of Laws from the University of Melbourne.  He also has a Diploma in Petroleum Exploration from the Norwegian Institute of Technology, a Certificate in Oil and Gas Financial Management from the University of Texas at Dallas, and a Certificate in International Nuclear Law Essentials from the National University of Singapore.

Geraldine Meneses-Terrible
Senior Corporate Counsel – SEA, Jones Lang LaSalle

Geraldine Meneses-Terrible is the Senior Corporate Counsel for South East Asia of Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), a global commercial real estate services company.  She provides legal support to the management and business lines of JLL on various commercial, operations, compliance and regulatory issues, as well as acquisitions, restructuring and cross-border transactions in South East Asia. 

Prior to working as an in-house counsel, she was a Senior Associate at Fortun Narvasa & Salazar where she performed corporate and litigation work.  She has more than 13 years of litigation and commercial law experience.

Geraldine obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration at the University of the Philippines where she graduated cum laude, and earned her law degree from San Beda College.  

Jay Patrick R. Santiago
Country General Counsel, Kyndryl 

Jay Patrick R. Santiago is an independent ADR practitioner based in the Philippines. He is an attorney in the Philippines and a qualified solicitor in England & Wales with over 12 years of legal experience in Hong Kong and Manila. 

Jay is an accredited arbitrator of the Philippine Dispute Resolution Center, the Philippine International Center for Conflict Resolution, and the Office for Alternative Dispute Resolution of the Philippines, which qualifies him to be an arbitrator in arbitrations involving government agencies in the Philippines. He has performed various roles in arbitral proceedings–as a party representative, a tribunal secretary, and an arbitrator. He is part of the Expert Pool of the Benchmark Chambers International & Benchmark International Mediation Center (深圳市蓝海法律查明和商事调解中心). He is a member of the Professional Development & Education Committee of the Asian Institute of Alternative Dispute Resolution. He is currently an Ambassador of the International Bar Association’s (IBA) Asia Pacific Arbitration Group and a Country Representative of the Asia-Pacific Forum for International Arbitration.
Jay authored chapters in various publications, including the Asia Mediation Handbook (Sweet & Maxwell, 2015), Foreign Investment and Investment Arbitration in Asia (Intersentia, 2019), Baker McKenzie International Arbitration Yearbook (2011-2013, 2020-2021), and Arbitration in Asia (published in Russian) (Kiaplaw, 2021). He regularly speaks at Mandatory Continuing Legal Education seminars in the Philippines and international conferences in the Philippines and abroad.

Jun P Bautista
Counsel
King & Spalding (Singapore) LLP

Jun Bautista is counsel in King & Spalding’s Singapore office, and is a member of the International Arbitration practice group.  He has represented clients across a number of industries in international arbitrations under various rules.  He has been recognized by Chambers, Legal 500 and Who’s Who Legal.
Prior to joining King & Spalding, Jun was based in Hong Kong and worked in the international arbitration groups at Herbert Smith Freehills and Baker Botts.  He was also the founding director of the International Centre for Dispute Resolution in Singapore, an associate at SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan, and a law clerk for Justice Conchita Carpio Morales at the Supreme Court.

Jun has been teaching international arbitration in the Philippines since 2009.  He is a founding member and a former co-chair of HK45, the HKIAC’s young practitioners’ group.  He is also a member of the ICC Taskforce on the New York Convention.

Mark Enojo
Head of Compliance - Zone ASEAN
Head of Legal and Compliance - Philippines
Siemens Healthineers

Mark Enojo is the Head of Compliance in ASEAN and concurrently the Head of Legal and Compliance in the Philippines of Siemens Healthineers, a leading publicly listed medical technology company headquartered in Germany.  He started his career in various law firms: Ponce Enrile Reyes & Manalastas in the Philippines and the Vietnam offices of Kelvin Chia Partnership and Mayer Brown, mainly focusing on M&A and corporate law. Prior to working for Siemens Healthineers, he was with the business process outsourcing sector through RR Donnelley and then SPi Global (now, Straive). He obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Juris Doctor degrees from the Ateneo de Manila University and where he also serves as a professorial lecturer in the Civil Law and Political Law departments at the School of Law. He is admitted to practice law in the Philippines and previously held a foreign practicing license as a lawyer in Vietnam.

Maria Lourdes P. Lim
Vice Chairman & Tax Managing Partner, PwC Philippines

Malou leads the tax practice of the Philippine office. She has more than 25 years of professional and extensive experience in providing tax services for various multinational and local companies of different industries such as Financial Services, Real Estate, Consumer & Industrial Products and Services (CIPS), Business Process Outsourcing, Energy, Oil & Gas.
Her core experience includes corporate structuring and taxation, with emphasis on in-bound and out-bound investment planning; cross-border acquisitions; advisory on the application and interpretation of domestic laws on tax, investment, corporate and securities regulations; restructuring/reorganization; mergers & acquisitions; tax due diligence/tax health check review; tax assessments and refund claims
Prior to joining the firm, her other professional experience includes working as an accountant and as a financial analyst. She earned her degree in Bachelor of Laws from San Beda University, Manila. Prior to law, she finished Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) at the Philippine School of Business Administration. She has completed the Comparative Tax Policy and Administration Program at the Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Asia Leadership Program at INSEAD Singapore and attended various PwC training & conferences.
Being both a CPA and a lawyer, Malou maintains active memberships at the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines. She was the 2017 Past President of the Tax Management Association of the Philippines (TMAP). During her term, TMAP actively participated as resource speaker during the deliberations of the House of Representatives and Senate on the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) which became effective on 01 January 2018. 
She is also a resource person on other tax reform legislations including the Tax Amnesty Act, which was signed into law on 14 February 2019; the bills on Tax Reform for Attracting Better and Higher Quality Opportunities (TRABAHO), the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Rationalization Act (CITIRA); and the Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Act (PIFITA). 

Maria Zarah R. Villanueva-Castro 
Vice President & Head, Corporate Legal
Manila Electric Company

Atty. Maria Zarah R. Villanueva-Castro is a Vice President and currently heads the Corporate Legal Office of the Manila Electric Company which renders corporate legal work for Meralco and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 
She also serves as the Corporate Secretary of the One Meralco Foundation, Meralco Pension Fund, Meralco Employees Savings and Loan Association, Meralco Employees Fund and Charity Inc., Comstech Integration Alliance, Inc. and Pure Meridian Holdings, Inc.

She obtained pre-law degree, BA Political Science, from the University of the Philippines and her law degree from San Beda University where she graduated as Class Valedictorian. She is also a professor of law at San Beda University and Ateneo de Manila University where she teaches Commercial Law Review. She is also an author and a bar review lecturer.

Maria Mercedes A. Maglaya
General Counsel and Acting Compliance Officer
PNOC Exploration Corporation

A Lawyer by profession, Marmee started her career with ESS Manufacturing Company Inc. as Legal Editorial Analyst IN 2004. Thereafter, she worked for the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) starting of as an Associate Solicitor II and eventually as State Solicitor II. Marmee’s experience in OSG carries with her several years of practice in litigation, and was part of the Special Committee on Naturalization which interviewed and evaluated applicants for Filipino Citizenship. She was also detailed to the Department of Justice as an Assistant to then Justice Secretary.

In 2012, Marmee shifted to corporate practice when she joined PNOC Exploration Corporation (PNOC EC) as Legal Counsel. She was promoted Manager of the Legal Department in 2019, and was appointed as General Counsel and Acting Compliance Officer in 2021.

As the current General Counsel and Acting Compliance Officer of PNOC EC, Marmee provides legal guidance to PNOC EC’s Board of Directors and top management, and is responsible for the general legal direction of the company. She is the chief negotiator of all agreements specific to the oil, gas, and coal industry as well as other contracts being entered into by the Company. Marmee earned both her Bachelor of Laws and undergraduate degree of Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City.

Ruben Del Rosario
Managing Partner, Del Rosario & Del Rosario

Ruben Del Rosario has extensive experience in maritime litigation including dry and wet work, personal injury, labour, insurance, multimodal transport and arbitration.  He is managing partner of Del Rosario & Del Rosario which has won accolades as the best maritime law firm in the Philippines.  DelRosarioLaw and its affiliate, Del Rosario Pandiphil Inc. represents practically all of the Protection and Indemnity Clubs, marine insurers and all types of shipping companies. Del Rosario has handled most of the major maritime casualties in the Philippines and also abroad when Filipino seafarers are involved.  The founder of DelRosarioLaw, Arturo M. Del Rosario Sr has represented maritime firms since 1946.     

Ruben has long been recognized as a leading authority in maritime and admiralty law and was named in AsiaLaw’s top 100 lawyers in the Philippines for the year 2018.  He is an accredited maritime arbitrator and founded the Philippine Maritime Voluntary Arbitrators Association.  He has been president of various maritime, legal and civic organizations.  He has lectured on maritime issues in various international conferences in the Philippines and abroad.

Ryan Co
Deputy General Counsel, Kumu

Atty. Ryan Co is one of the pioneering in-house legal counsels for start-up technology companies in the Philippines. He currently serves as Deputy General Counsel for Kumu, Inc. where he works with external counsels and attends to legal matters concerning markets in the Asia-Pacific Region. He also previously served as Country Legal Counsel for Shopee Philippines and other SEA Group entities which includes Garena, and AirPay. Prior to his technology law practice, he was into real estate where he served as Legal Director at Santos Knight Frank, Senior Legal Counsel at Rockwell Land and Legal Counsel at Megaworld Corporation. 

He also handled high profile litigation cases and complex legal transactions for multi-national clients while he was at SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan and Kapunan Lotilla Flores Garcia & Castillo. In the United States, he was a Foreign Attorney Intern at Reeves and Associates, an immigration law firm based in San Francisco, where he assisted US counsels prepare for trial and conduct legal research involving both United States and Philippine laws.

He was also a Professor at San Beda University where he taught labor and economics. He has a Master of Laws Degree (LL.M.) from Santa Clara University School of Law in California focused on High Technology, Employment and  Intellectual Property and Law (J.D.) and Economics (A.B.) Degrees from San Beda University.
 

and many more...