Interview with Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, interviewed by Meg Rithmire, Manila, Philippines

Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, Chairman and CEO of Ayala Corporation, discusses his mission, strategies and long-term vision when he assumed leadership of his family's business in 1994. He also traces the history of Ayala Corporation's development from its founding in the 1830s as a trading house specializing in agricultural products, to the present. Today, Ayala Corporation is a publicly listed trading company for the highly-diversified Ayala Group, with interests in real estate, public infrastructure, insurance, and banking. In the interview, Mr. Ayala describes how, when he became chairman in 1994, he entered at a moment of change both within Ayala Corporation and in the Philippines more broadly. The company had recently undergone major restructuring--Ayala Corporation, previously a real estate company with other scattered investments, became a holding company. Mr. Ayala thus began his tenure as chairman tasked with "formulating a whole new sense of being" for his company. "It was an exciting time," he recalls, "to be at the helm of the institution." Mr. Ayala was building his new vision for the company just as the Philippines were undergoing a period of political and economic ch