My warmest greetings to my fellow alumni from around the world!
What a very rough two years for all of us! The volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous brew of the pandemic, natural disasters, international and local political tensions, amidst misinformation have all challenged and changed us. For the optimistic among us, our better angels always won out. For all of us at the very least, we have become more resilient. This too, has been the key for the survival of both the Alumni Association of AIM – Philippines (AAAIM), which just officially turned 40 years old, and the Federation of AIM Alumni Associations (FAIM). We welcome the efforts of AAAIM and FAIM in responding and adapting to the new normal, to better serve the AIM alumni.
It is thus my utmost honor to welcome you to this maiden issue of LEAD, your AIM Alumni Online Magazine. The AAAIM Board, responding to the prevalent clamor throughout several Batch Assemblies for the revival of an alumni publication has made the quality decision, under the leadership of 2021-2022 Chairman Michael Sherwin Macatangay, EMBA 2006, to go headlong into this endeavor. Thus, we resurrected the networking spirit behind the Asian Manager, which then became the AIMLeader. Moreover, we utilize the latest digital technology and social media tools, to transform the alumni “magazine” into LEAD, this new, more dynamic online platform.
For this maiden issue of LEAD, we celebrate with the AAAIM its 40th year anniversary milestone. AAAIM unveils significant organizational and governance changes, and its shift to digital in response to the alumni engagement challenges ahead. LEAD presents short videos on survival strategies and change management lessons stemming from the pandemic featuring our stellar cast of Spotlight interviewees, namely: Managing Director of PT Multistrada Agro International, Dr. Kartika Antono, MM1989 the first female Triple A awardee from Indonesia; Chairman of the Board of Concepcion Durables, Inc. (Condura), Raul Anthony Concepcion, EMBA 2001 the first Triple A awardee from the EMBA ranks. Our first audio podcast features Founder and Chairman of Potato Corner, Jose P. “JoMag” Magsaysay, Jr., ME2001, the first Triple A awardee from the ranks of the Master in Entrepreneurship likewise sharing about survival lessons and adjustments during the pandemic. Chairman and President of Bayan Academy, Former AAAIM Chair Francisco “Jay” Bernardo III, MBM1993 honors on video his dearly departed father and AIM faculty great, Dean Francisco “Jun” Bernardo who recently passed on. We have also included the video link to Dean Bernardo’s “Sincerely Yours” lecture from many years ago. Continuous learning will also be a feature of LEAD through alumni-led, sponsored or partnered webinars and videoconferences. We will also be able to live stream significant alumni events, moving forward.
In this light, I invite all alumni and all alumni batches to join us in the promotion of thought leadership, as we very much welcome articles, podcasts and videos contributed, written or produced by or with you. While the AAAIM is the official publisher of LEAD, the editorial content will not merely be focused on Philippine based alumni, but on our international alumni as well, as we develop tie-ups with our overseas AIM graduates. LEAD welcomes your inputs, recommendations and collaboration as LEAD continues to evolve with the alumni network, becoming an essential part of alumni engagement.
We also hope you and your batches will partner with LEAD through your time, talent and treasure. Your active participation will itself be an exercise of leadership, as well as creativity and innovation in alumni engagement that will help us enhance our digital platform. These can be in the form of advertising, special batch projects, advertorials, responding to the call for special alumni patrons and similar alumni-led collaborations.
LEAD will help alumni stay connected with fellow graduates and our alma mater, celebrate alumni and school achievements, offer continuous learning, and adding value to our alumni network to bolster the AIM brand.
As we begin this new celebratory chapter in the life of the AIM alumni, it is my utmost, ardent wish that we not only keep the networking spirit within us alive, but that we will also keep in mind what our troubled times have taught us – that if we want to journey farther and to do meaningful things, we must do them together. Leadership. Live it. God bless us all.
Greg Atienza, MBM 1983
LEAD Editor-in-Chief