Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala will be stepping down as Globe Telecom chairman after 30 years. The telco giant has elected Cezar Consing as its new chairman of the board of directors, following the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting held on April 21, 2026.
Ayala had served as chairman since December 1996 and held a seat on the board since March 1989 – a tenure spanning 37 years as a director and 30 years as chairman. His departure marks one of the most significant leadership transitions in the history of Philippine telecommunications.
Despite leaving the Globe board, Ayala will continue to be involved with the company in a supporting role – as chairman of Asiacom Philippines Inc., the joint venture between Ayala Corporation and Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel) that serves as Globe’s major shareholder.
During his three decades at the helm, Ayala oversaw Globe’s transformation from a cable company into the first digital telecommunications firm in the Philippines. Key milestones during his tenure include the Globe-Mackay merger with Clavecilla Radio Corporation, the establishment of a long-term partnership with Singtel, and the acquisitions of IslaCom, Bayantel, and Vega Telecom.
Globe also launched the mobile payment platform GCash under Ayala’s leadership, which has since become the largest digital cashless ecosystem in the Philippines. The company further expanded through Kickstart Ventures and 917Ventures, and established platforms through the Asticom and Brave Group of companies and ST Telemedia Global Data Centers, before marking 50 years as a publicly listed entity.
On the sustainability front, Globe became the first publicly listed Philippine company to receive Science Based Targets initiative validation for its net-zero roadmap, and currently holds the highest environmental, social, and governance rating among domestic telecommunications companies.
“Globe would not be the institution it is today without JAZA’s vision and belief in what Globe could achieve,” the company said in a statement.
The leadership transition follows corporate governance standards and official disclosure regulations. No additional details on Consing’s strategic priorities as the incoming chairman have been disclosed as of this writing.
