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The Female CIO: Making the Cut

By the Computerworld Philippines Staff
April 1, 2008

To get to the top, they have to be more aggressive. They have to work harder to prove that they are not weaklings. That is how four female chief information officers were able to rise up the corporate ladder in what one of them referred to as a macho (masculine) organization.

To join the celebration of Women’s Month in March, Computerworld Philippines put together four female CIOs to talk about what it takes to be a successful female IT executive. The result was a lively and interesting discussion that revealed the emotions, the private stories, and the secrets to success of some of the country’s top female CIOs.

The participants were Wilma Cruz, Group CIO of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) and Smart Communications, Inc.; Theresita Eisma, Head of Corporate IT of Air21; Farida Ferraris-Limpoco, IT Country Head of Unilever Philippines; and Angelica Rapadas, Chief Information Officer of Ayala Corporation.

“If you take a look at it, there’s a growing preponderance among the female to take up IT and other technical courses nowadays,” says Cruz. “You have to be more aggressive because of the perception of coming from a weaker sex. It’s like you have to prove that you are not a weakling.”

For her part, Limpoco said that in the Philippines, women bosses are now more acceptable compared to other countries.

Eisma attributes to this growing trend to the innate qualities of women, such as perseverance, flexibility in terms of work, and in terms of how they deal with people. “We are more concerned with the human resources than with anything else; so that makes us more nurturing,” she says.

Coming from a family of achievers, Rapadas reveals that her success was a result of her upbringing. “One thing I can remember is that my father always said to us, his daughters, that, we have to have a career of our own so that if anything happens [to our husbands] we can take care of our family by ourselves.”

In the following pages, the women share how they where able to get where they are now and how they have been able to successfully balance between career life and family life.

Excerpts of the two-hour discussion at the Tower Club follow:

Computerworld Philippines: Briefly, tell us something about yourselves?

Rapadas: I graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Math and, to show my age, there was no Computer Science course yet at that time. The way to get into IT was to join a company like the Meralco Computer Information Systems that provided boot camp training and new-hire training. So I joined CIS as a management trainee. I stayed there for five years and then that was when my career started. I’ve been with Ayala Corporation for a year now. Prior to that, I was senior director for operations for consulting services of Oracle Asia Pacific.

Cruz: As for me, I took up BS Industrial Engineering in college; that time there was a Computer Science course in UP, but it was a Masteral’s program. So, in my senior year I thought that IT was the industry to be in. So, right after graduating and since I was already working, I took up Masteral units in Computer Science in UP.

When I was about to complete my units, I took some electives at the College of Business Administration. At that time, the dean of the UP College of Engineering was Manny Velasco, who was a partner at SGV. He offered me a job and so I joined SGV and headed an IT unit under Manny Velasco. When Arthur Anderson bought SGV, they sent people to the US for training. I became part of a pioneering group which eventually became a consulting practice that is now Accenture. So, in fact, I was the one who started the communications industry practice for Accenture for the Philippines. However, I eventually became tired. I was traveling to and from the US for like 10 years. I was practically living in hotels. Fortunately, at that time, Smart was looking for a CIO. So I gave it a try—and that was 9 years ago, and I’m still with Smart. Just very recently, I was also asked to take over the IT of PLDT. So I’m wearing two hats.

Limpoco: I’m also from UP; from the College of Business. I’m a BS Business Administration and Accounting graduate, so by profession I’m a certified public accountant (CPA). I was recruited directly from college by Unilever. So my whole career has been with Unilever. They got me straight from college; it’s really my business background that they got me, and everything about IT was provided to me by the company. So I attended all the programming workshops of IBM, I/ACT. I was also sent to a lot of regional workshops. I just came back from my stint in Singapore where I was the regional information development manager for almost a year. It has been a whirlwind for the past three years. I think they always give me something new to handle so it’s very exciting, although very stressful.

Eisma: My career was mostly spent in the government service. My educational background is quite far from my profession right now. I was a medical student when I decided to take a leave of absence from UERMMC (University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center) and to work. First, I was as a computer programmer in Economic Intelligence and Investigation Bureau under General Almonte. Then, for six years at the Bureau of Customs under Commissioner Guillermo Parayno. Anyway, when I was at BOC, they were trying to form an IT department. To prepare for this, I took and passed the qualifying exams and studied at the National Computer Center, which was quite difficult. We introduced the first computerization initiative of the Bureau of Customs. After Commissioner Parayno’s term ended, I joined the Lina Group of Companies, first at E-Connect Pilipinas, which is currently the developer of the second computerization program of the BOC, called E2N, which will be introduced sometime this month. And when they formed the corporate IT department at Air21, they appointed me as head because at E-Connect Pilipinas I was also involved with the computerization of the other companies in the Lina Group. We introduced in E-Connect Pilipinas the AEDS or auto export documentation system which makes us a big customer of PLDT for the Frame Relay.

CWP: How do you balance work and family?

Rapadas: Everything has its own place. It’s all just a matter of priorities. If you ask me, between family and work, I would put family first. Work has its place. When you are at work, you devote 100% of yourself to your job, but I set boundaries. When I get home, I finish thinking about work. That was my problem with Oracle because I always brought work home when I was divisional head for Asia Pacific. I would get phone calls at midnight, and sometimes at 5 a.m. I didn’t want that anymore. Now that I am in management level, I can always delegate. You have to know how to delegate; you cannot be doing everything because you will not survive. And your family life will suffer. So I still cook, I still go to the market. I take care of my family because I enjoy doing it.

Cruz: Actually, it’s a tough act balancing your career and your personal life. In fact, during my early years, I really had a problem balancing both, especially because I was doing a lot of traveling. But at the end of the day, family is the most important. That was the reason I left Accenture. I was married for 10 years. Now, I’m a widow and I don’t have kids. It was tough for my husband because I stayed a long time in the US. It wasn’t easy for him to migrate to the US. He was the reason why I came back home. I’m actually thankful that he actually took the time to understand the demands of my job.
He would get upset when I’d get a phone call from the company president while we’re having dinner. So eventually, my priorities changed. When I’m at home I would forget about my work we always spend weekends together.

Limpoco: I’ve been married for about three years, but no kids yet. We started with a long distance relationship. I was here in the Philippines and he was based in the US, with the military. He was deployed in Iraq so we had no communication while he was there. But he would try to find a satellite phone to call me. It was not an easy relationship. So before we got married, we discussed who was going to move where. However, since we both didn’t want him to stay with the US military any longer, he was the one who moved to the Philippines. We both agreed that he would change careers. So he has been studying online in a US university, and so wherever I go, he goes. He went with me when I was expatriated to Singapore. So I think I’m in a very supportive environment. My husband’s support makes my life easier.

Eisma: I’m raising two boys, a 12-year old and a 10-year old. I lost my husband five years ago. He was a medical doctor and yet he died of a disease. When we were still dating, I would say that he was really supportive. But I think it was because of circumstances—he was a doctor. So when we were dating, we were riding separate cars because the hospital would call him every now and then. So during the entire seven years of our married life, I would say he was really very supportive of my career. But I had to take care of him during the last years of his life.

I would say being single would have its advantages, especially when you are nurturing your career; because you don’t have somebody who would call you everyday expecting you to go home already and take care of the family. But my two sons are also just as demanding. I’m teaching them not to be too dependent on me because they are boys. But like the ladies here, my priority is my kids.

CWP: These days, there seems to be a growing number of women moving up the corporate ladder to become top IT executive and even CIOs. To what would you attribute this trend?

Cruz: If you take a look at it, there’s a growing preponderance among the female to take up IT and other technical courses nowadays.

CWP: Why?

Cruz: Because of the Internet age. In the past, computers where associated with mainframes. Today, computers are not something intimidating. It has become a gadget for everyone, not just for males. When I was still studying engineering, a class of 30 people would only have five female students. Now, when I look at my IT department, about 40% of my 400 people are women. And about 40% of my IT executives are women. Same with PLDT. In fact, my OIC for PLDT is a woman.

Rapadas: I think the trend is not limited to IT alone. Generally, executive positions now are for the taking. There was this survey that said that there are more female executives in the Philippines than other countries. Executive positions are now gender agnostic.

Limpoco: There are a lot of support systems; you can delegate. So this gives women more opportunity to explore their potentials, and I think men in general are now accepting that women can do or even do better on a lot of jobs.

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