Irene Jose, the woman behind the Big Dome's ventures, was initially Araneta Group's VP for Finance in 2013. But merely a year later, she was named the first Chief Operations Officer (COO) of Uniprom Inc., the unit that oversees Smart Araneta Coliseum, New Frontier Theater, the Gateway and Ali Mall Cineplex and their accompanying Snaxx, TicketNet, and Binibining Pilipinas.

During her time as COO, the Big Dome reacquired the hosting rights for the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the PULP Live World production after 4 years. Since 2016, under her management, Wish 107.5 held the annual Wish Music Awards at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. Most famous K Pop acts also held their shows either at the Big Dome and New Frontier Theater.

She also had a hand in bringing Manny Pacquiao's traditional victory motorcade over at Araneta City, when the renowned boxer won against Timothy Bradley in Las Vegas in 2016. She recalled, "We hosted a lunch for his entourage at Novotel [Manila Araneta City]. Coincidentally, Pia Wurtzbach was also at the hotel for her homecoming after winning Miss Universe. The following day, major publications carried the headline “Champion meets the Champion at Novotel, Araneta Center".

Ultimately, she feels grateful to have worked with colleagues and superiors who have been supportive and trusting with her craft. Apart from that, Jose encourages everyone to constantly pray and ask for wisdom.

Women make great leaders because we take the time to listen instead of reacting right away. We appreciate people and their viewpoints. We also wear many hats, often balancing career and domestic life, taking care of our ageing parents, among other things.

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Maria Manlulu-Garcia had been a tour de force when she was still in the United States of America. In her 28 years of hospitality experience, Garcia has opened four international hotels, rebranded three hotels, and earned the "Mabuhay Awards" from the Association of Human Resources Manager in the Hospitality Industry for Managerial Position in 2008.

In 2015, she joined the pre-opening team of Novotel Manila Araneta City as executive assistant manager, then became resident manager a year later. Recently, she was promoted from Resident Manager to General Manager in 2020—when she faced the challenges brought about by the pandemic.

But this only urged her and her team to be more creative. She proudly shared, "We have developed a new business market and implemented new revenue initiatives such as our hotel delivery service called 'Take Me Out' by Novotel Manila and 'Meetings on the Go' by Novotel. Together with some cost-saving initiatives last year, we ensured that we are one of the firsts to adapt to the new norm of operating a hotel."

After years of serving, Garcia feels proud to be part of a company that strongly believes and supports diversity and women empowerment. "More companies and management need to have the awareness to fully understand what diversity and inclusion are all about. It is no longer about women but about embracing all genders. No one wants to have special treatment, we all just want to have the same and equal opportunity to all,” she said.

She also promotes sensitivity to gender, cultural differences, and disabilities as the chair of Novotel Manila's 'RiseAsOne' program.

Garcia added, “The next-generation female leaders need to have is to truly be at the forefront of creating women-empowered workplaces. We need to shatter the glass in our own minds and believe that we have the same capabilities as anyone else."

It’s easy to be a leader but it’s harder to be a great leader. Great leaders find the balance between business foresight, performance, and character. As a woman leader, we have a future vision, perseverance, empathy, passion, and have an advantage of graceful powers to lead with the heart and an iron fist that work magically in any industry.

Lorna Fabian fearlessly took on the road to success at the Araneta Group in 1998. After joining PDC Coatings Inc, Fabian was transferred to ACI Inc in 2001 as Leasing Manager. Not long after this, she was promoted to Vice President and Head of Leasing department in 2011.

"I was given the right opportunities to prove myself in leasing, where rewards are based on results and merits than gender," Lorna Fabian,  shared.

Under her management, Araneta City managed to survive despite the stiff competition in retail and office spaces in the Metro. Currently, Araneta City has more than 600,000 square metres of leasable spaces. Fabian shared, "Our team has managed to lease more than 95 per cent of these and has placed Cyberpark and the Araneta City in the realm of the retail and office industry, offering premier retail and office spaces and amenities to international retailers and BPOs and corporate partners. We are now at par, if not better, against other big developers in the NCR, and still growing, with new retail and office developments within the City under construction, in spite of this pandemic".

Resilience, patience, strong faith, and optimism—regardless of encountering hurdles—were virtues that led her to the top of her career. Above all, she always believes in creating a workspace that empowers women. "I always desire to develop my team to be better than me," she added.

Women leaders are more transformational. We want to lead as role models through constant mentoring, communicating, and caring like a mother to their children. This gives us the right balance in life.

Diane Romero believes that she joined the business development of the Araneta Group at the right time. She was a fresh graduate when she entered the field in 2004.

Romero recalled, "Araneta City was in the onset of executing its redevelopment plans. Gateway Mall just opened and the next phases were mapped out. Being part of Business Development allowed me to be immersed in every major development Araneta has here now, from the ground up. These highlights include the 18-tower residential Manhattans Gardens, the renovation of Ali Mall & New Frontier Theater, the rise of Gateway Tower & Araneta Cyberpark, and the opening of the first Novotel branch in the Philippines. The experience honed my skills in project management and allowed me to interact with various stakeholders".

Her loyalty to the Araneta group had been rewarding. Throughout her career, she learned to handle special projects, assignments as a business analyst, and various experiences in doing outreach volunteer work. This earned her the trust of top management and the company's social responsibility arm, J. Amado Araneta Foundation. In 2008, Romero took on the role of Executive Director.

"Today, JAAF has a hundred scholars under its care excluding a hundred more through partnerships, it manages a public museum for Filipino culture & arts development, provides housing, healthcare assistance and livelihood for community development, readily lends a hand to the needy in times of disaster, provides grants and works with other organizations for productive projects, and takes part in endeavours that impact the lives of Filipinos nationwide including spiritual enrichment among many others," Romero shared.

Then in 2019, she was appointed AVP of Business Development. "I am blessed to have my passion, vocation, profession and mission converging and leading me to where I am now. But everything was not handed on a silver platter. Trust was built and maintained over time, starting from the smallest, the simplest tasks," she said.

Her inspiration? Romero's mother. "I admire her courage and perseverance in whatever she puts her mind into, but at the same time, she remains kind and generous – ready to help others," she shared.

We all have our distinct role by design. It must be recognized, seized and nurtured, first by us – women.

Marjorie Go became the youngest in the Araneta Group management when she took on the role of AVP in 2019 after her successful stint in ACI Inc's marketing team since 2010.

Go was tasked to lead the company's rebranding from 'Araneta Center' to 'Araneta City'. She recalled, "It’s a major milestone for the whole company as we have never done this before, and it was just apt to launch Araneta City given the major changes and developments that happened over the past years".

Among the many creative promotions and staged events that Go spearheaded, there are two projects that will remain close to her and Filipinos' heart—the Araneta City's annual giant Christmas tree lighting and homecoming parades for Miss Universe queens Pia Wurtzbach and Catriona Gray.

She looks up to both her former and current marketing bosses. Go imparted, "They continue to inspire me to become a better leader. Both are generous to share their knowledge, gave their full trust to me, believe in me, and give pieces of advice about work and life in general. Sometimes when I decide on something, I would ask myself 'what would these two do?'"

With this, Go strives to guide her team with members who are much younger than her. "Just like any other leaders, the constant balance to continuously reinvent yourself and inspire and train the people under our wing is challenging. I constantly remind myself to have that growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset, to embrace challenges and accept criticisms, and to focus on learning," she said.

It’s good to see that there are a lot of women in different sectors of society leading and inspiring change for their community. I believe that the strength of a woman, her intelligence, flexibility, and empathy are some of the qualities women possess [that] make them good leaders.

Through Araneta Group's PPI Holdings, we are able to delight ourselves with famous food brands Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Dairy Queen in the Philippines. And Chacha Juinio, the COO of this exclusive franchisee, has well-managed all three brands amidst the pandemic—a difficult time, especially for the food industry—with her team.

"I am proud of having introduced cross-functional ideation to PPI Holdings," Juinio said, "This has brought together various disciplines to work together towards one common goal and expand creativity and knowledge among each other."

Juinio and her team also achieved their financial goals for Pizza Hut in 2020 despite the sales being significantly lower than before. 

Her determination and dedication had always been a great quality of Juinio. "The most significant barrier I faced is bias. Early on in my career, the general consensus on women managers is we would give up our job as soon as we had children, or worst, we become unreliable when we have kids," she said. But it seems her recent achievements have shown this to be entirely false.

With this, she encourages women to trust their innate intelligence, skills, and voice. She imparted, "I also advocate mentorship, so I would like to encourage all female leaders to look for a female role model in your company, in the industry you belong to even in organizations. Do not be afraid to ask for advice or to ask to be mentored".

A woman leader brings both strength and compassion into the equation. Women can be tough when called for and can be soft when needed.

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