First Metro Announces Top Management Change
Makati—(PHStocks)—First Metro Investment Corp. president Roberto Juanchito T. Dispo is set to retire after 18 years with the Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (PSE: MBT)-owned investment bank. His retirement as president and director is effective January 1, 2016, on which date Rabboni Francis B. Arjonillo, formerly Treasury and Investment Banking Sector head of Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank), assumes the presidency.
Dispo joined First Metro in 1998 following his last government post as Deputy Treasurer of the Philippines. As head of treasury, First Metro grew and established itself as one of the major players in the Philippine capital markets. In 2011, he was elected president in recognition of his significant contribution to the company’s emergence as the country’s biggest and leading investment bank.
During his tenure, First Metro became a prime mover in the development of Philippine capital markets by underwriting major debt and equity issues as well as introducing innovative products such as OFWs Bonds, Progress Bonds, ADB Peso Bonds, and the On Shore Dollar Bonds. Dispo also spearheaded the introduction of the country’s first-ever exchange traded fund, the First Metro Philippine Equity Exchange Traded Fund Inc. (PSE: FMETF), which was listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange on December 2, 2013.
In 2014, Dispo was named Global Filipino Executive of the Year by the Asia CEO Awards and was a finalist in CNBC Asia Business Leaders Awards in 2012. Both awards honor remarkable leaders and visionaries in the Asia region for their continuing commitment to excellence, developing best practices and promoting innovation.
Arjonillo will replace Dispo. Arjonillo will be joining First Metro on November 2, 2015 as senior executive vice president until Dispo’s retirement.
Arjonillo has more than three decades of extensive experience in banking and finance, locally and overseas. Before he joined Landbank in 2012, he spent 18 years in Citibank with the most recent roles as treasurer in Australia and in Vietnam, where he was the founding chairman of the Vietnam Bond Market Forum. In the Philippines, he was a former president and director of the Money Market Association of the Philippines.
He has an AB Economics Degree from De La Salle University and a Masters in Business Management degree from the Asian Institute of Management.