A Tribute to Retired AIM Faculty

On the evening of January 27, 2009 at the SGV Hall of the AIM Conference Center Manila, AIM gave honor to mentors who contributed meaningful years of service and commitment to the Institute. Dean Licuanan opened the evening with warm welcome remarks, highlighting the seven professors as part of the AIM family. Professor Richard Cruz introduced each of the distinguished league of educators.

Here is how the AIM community remembers the retired professors:

Prof. Soledad A. Hernando, PhD

Professor Sol, as she is commonly known, was a core faculty of the Center for Development Management. Greatly loved by the AIM community, Professor Sol is a respected educator, a committed development expert, and a very devoted wife and a loving mother.

Prof. Jose M. Faustino

“I want the students to become the best that they can be!" Professor Joe Faustino shared in the last AIM Blog interview. This has been his motivation for teaching at AIM. Being the Program Director for years, he is known as the proponent of the Strategic Marketing Course. Before his retirement, he was a core faculty of the MBA program. He also became core faculty of EXCELL. Apart from his marketing expertise, his colleagues and students will always remember his candor and sense of humor.

Prof. Teodoro Ma. P. Dizon

Professor Dizon was EXCELL’s Program Director for the Basic Management Program. His colleagues consider him as an expert on financial and managerial accounting, including control systems. While he is known as a master in the numbers game, he also is a force to beat when it comes to billiards and card games.

Prof. Victor S. Limlingan

Professor Limlingan has devoted his years of service at AIM being a core faculty of the Center for Development Management. He taught courses on development finance and strategy management. He is also managing a business with his supportive wife, Marita.

Prof. Errol B. Perez, DBA

Professor Perez was a member of the MBA core faculty. He taught courses on finance and quantitative analysis. He had recently supervised cases on finance and money markets, and in 2008, gamely did a brownbag presentation on the Sub-prime meltdown. One will not fail to recognize Professor Perez in AIM, as he is probably the only faculty member who wears a bowtie and a bowler’s hat.

Prof. Rafael J. Azanza

Professor Azanza served as a GSB faculty for years at AIM. He taught courses on finance, and also supervised cases on strategic finance for the Case Research Group. Not a lot of people know that aside from having a star appeal, he also had a chance to showcase talent in the movie industry decades ago.

Prof. Purba H. Rao, PhD

Professor Purba Rao was a core faculty of the MBA Program. She taught courses on predictive modeling, quantitative management and was extensively publishing researches on her areas of expertise and advocacies. She is most-loved by her students and members of the AIM staff, with whom she shares her unforgettable Indian cooking.

AIM Honors Distinguished Retiring Faculty Members

After rendering years of dedicated service to AIM, eight senior professors availed of the Institute’s voluntary retirement program. They are: Prof. Rafael J. Azanza, Jr., Prof. Teodoro Ma. P. Dizon, Prof. Jose M. Faustino, Prof. Sol A. Hernandez, Prof. Victor S. Limlingan, Jr., Prof. Errol B. Perez, and Prof. Purba H. Rao. Two of the six distinguished professors accommodated our interview about their memories of AIM, their legacy, and their aspirations for the Institute and its graduates.



How did you start teaching?

Professor Faustino: I started teaching in 1980. Before that, I got invitations to teach evening seminars, especially because I graduated from Harvard. I knew from the start that I love teaching, but could not pursue it right away because I was involved in the corporate life. So, I envisioned that I would teach after 10 years when I reach my goal of becoming V.P. in the company. Fortunately, I became the V.P. of Pepsi Cola in 5 years time. Until I realized that corporate life was not very fulfilling. I define fulfillment as being able to develop young people to be the best they want to become. That is when I decided to teach. I got offers to teach in the German Management Institute in Cologne. From 2001 to 2008, Leiden University in Netherlands also invited me to teach the Global Marketing Course.

How do you want to be remembered as a teacher?

Professor Faustino: I always tell my students that in my class, they will have a hard time. However, in reality, my students have fun learning and nobody sleeps. I am also strict in a sense that students have to be well prepared for classroom discussion.

What is your most memorable experience in class?

Professor Faustino: Every class is a memorable one. It keeps me young and working hard.

What is the legacy you want to leave AIM?

Professor Faustino: For the past 30 years, I have been an active Program Director of the Strategic Marketing Course. But most importantly, the legacy I want to develop is to have successful graduates who have taken the marketing class.

What is your greatest fulfillment in teaching?

Professor Faustino: Students grow professionally, mentally and emotionally.

After teaching at AIM, what else do you want to pursue?

Professor Faustino: Start writing a book about Marketing.

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Years of service in AIM.

Professor Azanza: Since 1971, but not continuously. There were work leaves.

What is/are your most memorable experience/experiences here in AIM?

Professor Azanza: There's not just one. For me, the turn-on here is seeing students get good jobs that they would not have gotten without AIM, and seeing them to be successful in their careers It is wonderful when we hear about them and their families prospering. And it is an uplifting experience seeing our alumni provide employment to people, and developing Asia . All that is memorable.

How do you want to be remembered as a Professor?

Professor Azanza: Well, in the long run, we are all forgotten. That's OK. A Professor lives on in his students. I would, if anything, just like to be remembered as part of the AIM team of faculty who tried to help out Asia. That's quite enough.

What is the legacy you want to leave the Institution?

Professor Azanza: My room (It is an urban legend). The words "boom-boom" (an inside joke.) Seriously, I hope my legacy is that I helped a number of students and businessmen appreciate the importance of, and logic in, Finance. I hope that simplifying Finance and making it funny is some sort of legacy, to be carried on by others. I want to write a "serious jokebook" about Finance in my retirement.

What are the changes you’ve seen in AIM through the years?

Professor Azanza: I think the level of psychological normality has somewhat improved. There are also more Doctorates among the faculty, something we should have done a long, long time ago. We started with a small endowment and I regret that we still have, relatively speaking, a peewee endowment, making the running of endless short programs still necessary to make ends meet. We lost the diversity among our student body that made this place such an interesting kaleidoscope of diverging views, smells, religions, social mores, career paths, and marital hookups. May the diversity return.

Now that you’re retired, what will be the things you will be busy with?

Professor Azanza: I still have board directorships, consultancies, vices. And I will still work at AIM on a reduced basis as an Adjunct faculty member. I will write cases and books and teach occasionally, maybe do MRR or other mentorships. The modern trend is that nobody completely retires, and modern medicine keeps us alive excessively.

Insights for 2009 from the AIM Professors

Before the year 2008 ends, we interviewed two respected AIM faculty members. Washington Sycip Graduate School of Business' Associate Dean Ricky Lim and Professor Federico Macaranas, 2008 Outstanding Filipino (TOFIL) Awardee for Community and Humanitarian Service generously shared their insights and inspirations for the new year ahead.

What would you consider AIM milestones in 2008?
Professor Lim: For this year, I consider the MBA-16 program as the major milestone of the Institute. With the shortened period, the faculty streamlined the program into what is essential. On the student's side, they were able to finish their MBA much earlier, giving them shorter time to recover their educational investment.

What do you think is the role of AIM in helping people cope with the economic crisis?
Professor Lim: The Master in Business Administration (MBA), Master in Management (MM) and Master in Development Management (MDM) prepare students for complex and volatile environment, with limited resources to work with. They get to develop "Adversity Quotient", making them resilient and able to cope with unclear problems and solutions. They learn to address the problems on hand and not easily panic as they come.

Professor Macaranas: The role of AIM is making people understand the roots of the crisis and the solutions at the global and national level so individuals can manage things within their control.

What do you think is the extent of the financial crisis in Asia, particularly in the Philippines?
Professor Lim: Quoting from an AIM alumnus, as a result of the Asian Crisis last 1997, many of our financial institutions and banks did not play so much on foreign derivatives. Therefore, this means that the Philippines will not be severely affected by the financial crisis, unlike the developed countries who are experiencing a recession.

Professor Macaranas: Asia is the saving grace of the crisis. China and India are growing at least 5% rate, even at the time when developed countries, particularly the U.S., Europe and Japan, are in a recession.

The Philippines is not as exposed to financial links like Hong Kong and Singapore. However, some of our local banks are linked to the different assets underlying many financial papers issued in the West.

What are your suggestions on how we can best cope with the crisis?
Professor Lim: People should be on thrift mode and cut down on consumer spending. This will help everyone face the 4-5 year bleak economic forecast. Little things like turning the aircon off and postponing unnecessary buying can help.

Professor Macaranas:
1) Both public and private sectors should have a clear appreciation of each other's roles. Confidence in financial system must be bolstered by the appropriate government bodies and the private sector must be transparent about their exposures. We have to have good knowledge of these exposures. It's already too late if it's already in the newspapers. Government has to make sure that monetary authorities are on guard.
2) On the short term, government must continue with the non-protectionist trade and investment policies, but must make sure it keeps to a long-term strengthening of productivity of agriculture industry and services.
3) Individual firms must watch how new markets may flourish amidst the recession and look at growth opportunities in the sunrise industry such as BPO's, environmental technologies, biofuels, short haul tourism, food and agriculture and mining to serve the markets of China and India.

What "mantra" or positive saying would you like to imprint on people's minds during this trying times?
Professor Lim: LEARN TO LEARN. You have to learn new skills, new language, learn to cook. Just get into the process of learning new things, and re-inventing yourself.

Professor Macaranas: REMAIN COMPETITIVE. If you can, look for opportunities despite down times, look out for promising things to do.

AIM Executive Director, Dr. Federico M. Macaranas receives the Outstanding Filipino Award

Dr. Federico M. Macaranas is one of the most sought after international leaders and speakers on globalization, economics and leadership. Currently, he is a full time professor at Asian Institute of Management (AIM) and is the Executive Director of AIM Policy Center. Under his leadership, they are able to implement high impact socially oriented researches and advocacies throughout the country.

For his strong dedication and esteemed efforts, he is cited as the 2008 Outstanding Filipino (TOFIL) Award for Community and Humanitarian Service. According to JCI Senator Lourdes Sotto, "Dr. Macaranas' lifelong devotion has benefited the Filipino people either directly or as a shining example to the rest of our countrymen."

This award will be given on December 11, 2008 at the Insular Life Theater, Insular Life Corporate Center in Filinvest Corporate City, Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

Congratulations to Dr. Macaranas!