Still bankable at 89
Octogenarian still actively runs and oversees his family's businesses after spending seven decades in banking
MOST executives who have worked all their lives look forward to retirement so they could enjoy the fruits of their labor and simply go on a much-deserved R&R (rest and recreation) away from the humdrum of the corporate grind.
Enrique ‘Toti’ Herbosa Chairman Emeritus Amalgamated Development Corp.Not 89-year-old banker Enrique «Toti» Herbosa, who still actively runs and oversees his family's businesses after spending seven decades in banking.
«I've been in banking all my life,» said Herbosa, chairman emeritus of Amalgamated Development Corp. «So many banks.»
«I remember, in my college days, we had a savings bank project, and we had to put up a 'bank' in the school library, staffed with a teller, a bookkeeper and an auditor,» recalled Herbosa.
«That started me to get into banking. My father (Estanislao) also wanted one of us to get into banking as early as that time.»
Herbosa took up Banking and Finance, minor in Accounting at San Beda College, where he studied since high school.
After college, Herbosa went to the United States where he was fortunately accepted at Stanford University in California where he took up Master of Business Administration and graduated in 1958.
«I left the Philippines after I worked for nearly two years at Equitable Bank which later merged with PCI Bank. That was owned by the Go family.»
Herbosa was in Stanford for two years after which he got his «MD (marriage degree)» in 1959. He married his girlfriend, Pacita.
«We tied the knot in San Francisco,» Herbosa disclosed. «I was allowed to work in the US after I graduated. Under the rules [of Stanford University], I was allowed 18 months of managerial training. I completed that.
TOTI FRUTTI Enrique ‘Toti’ Herbosa (above) with the ‘love of his life’ Elaine Ongpin Herbosa and with his circle of friends (below), which includes former Manila mayor and Department of Environment and Natural Resources secretary Jose Lito Atienza. CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS TOTI FRUTTI Enrique ‘Toti’ Herbosa (above) with the ‘love of his life’ Elaine Ongpin Herbosa and with his circle of friends (below), which includes
