UM prexy awarded Outstanding CEO in Academe

On a momentous occasion, the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr. Guillermo P. Torres, Jr., was awarded the Outstanding CEO in Academe by the Philippine Council of Deans and Educators in Business (PCDEB) during its national convention held in Davao City on April 25-27, 2024.

The prestigious award is in recognition of the president’s massive initiatives in bringing the University of Mindanao, the largest private higher education institution (PHEI) in the island, to where it is now as one of the top private, non-sectarian universities in the Philippines. UM is the first and only Level IV Awardee Performance Excellence in the Philippine Quality Award (PQA) among academic institutions in the whole country. To date, it is also the 3rd institution only in the Philippines to have received the PQA Level IV award after Unilab and Toyota.

Among PHEIs, UM stands as the 2nd highest in terms of accredited academic programs under the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities – Commission on Accreditation (PACUCOA) in the whole Philippines, next only to the University of Santo Tomas.

The PCDEB is one of the biggest associations of academicians of business and accountancy programs, whose organization was first chartered in 2002. It aims to promote business education in the country as well as cultivate lifelong learning in the business profession, in the process harnessing the synergy of business educators across all the PHEIs in the Philippines.

As a businessman and educator himself, Dr. Torres is just apt for this recognition as he can symbolize the role of the schools in the improvement of quality business education and accountancy programs. In 2022, Dr. Torres was also recipient of the Juran Medal Award given by the Philippine Society of Quality (PSQ). This medal gives due recognition of the awardee’s distinction for excellent organizational performance.

UM’s College of Business Administration Education and College of Accountancy Education, whose deans and faculty members are part of the PCDEB, are both PACUCOA Level IV accredited. The CBAE is also a Center of Excellence (CoE) under the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). Thus, during the 2nd day of the PCDEB’s national convention, more than a hundred convention delegates came to UM for a productive benchmark visit and dialog with university officials. The visit culminated with a tour in the university’s massive 29-hectare campus in Matina, Davao City.