Bernardo Malvar Villegas is a Professor at the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P), Research Director of the Center for Research and Communication, Manila and Visiting Professor of IESE Business School in Barcelona.
He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University and is a Certified Public Accountant, having been one of the CPA board topnotchers in 1958. He obtained Bachelor’s degrees in Commerce and the Humanities (both Summa Cum Laude) from De La Salle University where he established a record by obtaining straight A’s in the LIACOM course, a five-year program he finished in four years. At Harvard, at the age of 21, he was one of the youngest ever Teaching Fellows in the College of Arts and Sciences. His special fields of study, teaching and research are development economics, social economics, business economics and strategic management.
Dr. Villegas is the author of several economics textbooks widely used in Philippine schools and universities. He has also written a number of management best-sellers like The Philippine Advantage, Book of Values, Productivity: Path to Global Competitiveness, The Filipino Phenomenon, and The Philippines at the Threshold of the Third Millennium.
He has received several prestigious awards, such as the Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) in 1972, and also recognition from the Asia Foundation, Fulbright Program, Instituto de Cultura Hispanica and the Johnson Foundation.
Dr. Villegas is currently a member of the boards of directors or advisory boards of leading national and multinational firms, such as the Alaska Corporation, Benguet Corporation, Dupont, Insular Life, PHINMA Property Holding Corporation, and Rolls Royce. He has served on the boards of Bank of the Philippine Islands, Globe Telecom, IBM and McDonalds. He is a consultant on management development and strategic planning for numerous leading firms operating in the Philippines and Asia Pacific. He has also served on the boards of leading non-governmental organizations like the Dualtech Foundation, Makati Business Club, Parents for Education Foundation, PHINMA Foundation and Pilipinas Shell Foundation.
Through his work at the University of Asia and the Pacific and the Center for Research and Communication, he is often asked to give advice to top government officials on many policy issues, especially industrial policy and rural development. He was a member of the Constitutional Commission that drafted the Philippine Constitution under the government of former President Corazon Aquino. He is very often on road shows briefing international audiences about the Philippines and the Asia Pacific region. In July 1992, Dr. Villegas was appointed a member of the Council of Economic Advisers of President Fidel Ramos. In July 1998, he was asked by President Joseph Estrada to help promote the Philippines among local and foreign investors. Under the Administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, he served as a private sector representative on the board of the National Development Corporation and the Philippine Infrastructure Corporation. Under the Administration of President Benigno Aquino III, he has helped government agencies, both at the national and local levels—to promote investments in the Philippines. He served on the Pacific Board of Economics of Time Magazine and writes regularly for both local and international newspapers, including The Asian Wall Street Journal and the New York Times International (formerly the International Herald Tribune.