Josephine Gotianun-Yap (left), president and chief executive officer of Filinvest Land Inc. and Maricel Brion-Lirio, president and CEO of Filinvest REIT Corp. (right) CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

FILINVEST is ranked among the top 10 companies in the world led by women chief executive officers (CEOs) and with the highest percentage of women executive officers.

This is according to the latest report of Corporate Women Directors International (CWDI), a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., USA, which surveyed nearly 3,000 companies in 55 countries to generate baseline data on women in leadership roles.

In its 2021 report, "Women CEOs: Opening Doors to Boards and C-Suites," CWDI ranked the top 10 women-led global firms with the highest percentages of women in the board of directors. The ranking included four from the Philippines: SSI Group (80 percent), Victorias Milling Company (60 percent), and Filinvest and Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc. (both with 50 percent).

Among the largest publicly listed companies in 55 countries examined in the report, only 143 out of 2,994 companies have a woman CEO.

"Still, too few women have reached the CEO level of the largest companies in each country," said CWDI Chairman Irene Natividad. "But what is clear is that women at the top are a plus for women... Increasing gender diversity on the board and in senior management may not have been a primary goal when these women became CEOs, but it is nonetheless their impact."

This is no truer than in the case of Filinvest. The conglomerate was co-founded by Mercedes Gotianun, who also holds the distinction for being the first woman universal bank president in the Philippines, while only daughter Josephine Gotianun-Yap currently serves as president and CEO of Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI), its real estate development arm.

Its newly listed real estate investment trust company, Filinvest REIT Corp. (FILRT), also has a woman at the helm — President and CEO Maricel Brion-Lirio — who also serves in the FILRT board of directors with five other women and four men. Gender equality is also a common denominator across the group: holding firm Filinvest Development Corp. (55 percent are women); FLI (60 percent are women); Filinvest Alabang Inc. (71 percent are women), and Filinvest Cyberparks Inc. (79 percent are women).