Vincent S. Perez

Upon graduation from Wharton, he joined Mellon Bank's International Banking Department in Pittsburgh and completed their international credit training program. Pérez was assigned as a Latin American credit analyst and later as Mexico and Central America desk officer. In 1985, he joined Mellon's debt trading team, and was one of the early pioneers in emerging markets debt trading, focusing on Latin American and Philippine debt.

In 1986, Pérez then joined Lazard Brothers & Co in London as part of its debt trading team. The following year he moved to Lazard Frères & Co. in New York as a debt trader and investment banker. In 1994, he became a general partner of Lazard Frères as co-head with Edgar Legaspi of its Emerging Markets Group, becoming one of the highest-ranking Asian bankers on Wall Street, and was named one of the 100 Emerging Markets Superstars by Global Finance.[4] In 1994, Pérez relocated to Singapore as one of the founding managing directors of Lazard Asia.

In 1997, Pérez left Lazard to set up Next Century Partners, a private equity firm based in Singapore, teaming up with Patrick Go, Dennis Mendiola, John Wallace, and Eduardo Martinez-Miranda. They invested in companies such as Smart Communications, Del Monte Pacific,[5] and those involved in semiconductor assembly. Among the co-investors of Next Century Partners were Soros Fund,[6] Mitsui, and one of the Bass brothers of Fort Worth, Texas.[7]

In early 2001, Pérez was recruited by his former academic adviser and then-newly sworn Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to join her administration. He served briefly as undersecretary for industry at the Department of Trade and Industry and as managing head of the Board of Investments. He then served from 2001 to 2005 in the Cabinet of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as Energy Secretary.[8] As such, Pérez boosted energy self-sufficiency, promoted clean indigenous energy, and crafted an ambitious renewable policy framework. He dealt with solving the frequent grid-wide power black-outs that were hampering the economy then,[9] and had to secure the oil supply of the country in the wake of the 2003 Iraq War[10] by pursuing energy diplomacy in Asia and the Middle East.[11] As chair of an ASEAN Energy Ministers meeting, Pérez led the ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation for 2004–2009, setting for the first time a regional commitment to attain a minimum 10% of power mix in renewable energy. He hosted the first ministerial meeting of ASEAN Plus 3 (China, Japan and Korea) energy ministers in June 2004.[12] After overseeing a major restructuring of the Philippine power sector and having initiated the privatization of generation assets of the state-owned National Power Corporation (Napocor), he resigned in March 2005.[13] With four years of government service, Pérez was one of the longest-serving members of Arroyo's economic team and was cited as the last of her "touted trio of Wall Street-bred economic managers".[14]

In announcing his resignation, Malacañang Palace issued a statement from Arroyo citing Pérez's "crucial role in implementing difficult power sector reforms, reorganizing the public energy sector, jump-starting the much-awaited privatization of Napocor, and ensuring no more Luzon-wide blackouts since May 2002". The President underscored the "valuable contributions made by Secretary Pérez in the country’s quest for energy independence through greater reliance on clean, indigenous and sustainable energy sources", noting that since 2001, the country has increased its use of indigenous natural gas and geothermal power.[15]

Since his return to the private sector in 2005, Pérez has been active in renewable power, energy advisory, and conservation issues. He was a 2005 World Fellow[16] at Yale University, where he lectured an MBA class on renewable power in emerging countries. Upon his return in 2006, Pérez and former energy officials Jocot de Dios and Lea Ricolcol, founded Merritt Partners, an energy advisory firm. That same year, he was invited by the owners of NorthWind, the first wind farm in Southeast Asia, to replace a minority shareholder, and that led him to a decade-long career investing in renewable energy.[17] In 2008, Pérez and his partners founded Alternergy, a renewable power company focused on wind and run-of-the-river hydro, and built the Pililla Wind Farm in partnership with Equis Funds. Subsequently, in 2013, he co-founded Solar Pacific, a solar PV developer, with Michael Lichtenfeld and the Sant Foundation. As a private citizen, he was dispatched as Special Presidential Envoy by President Arroyo on economic diplomacy overseas. In 2009, Pérez was appointed as vice chairman of the National Renewable Energy Board.[18]

Pérez has been an independent director of regional companies in Australia, the Philippines, and Singapore. He is an independent director of ST Telemedia[19] and Banco de Oro.[20] He is a member of the advisory boards of Bhutan Foundation,[3] New Zealand Trade and Enterprise,[21] Geneva-based Pictet Clean Energy Fund, and the Yale Center for Business and the Environment.[2]

Pérez and his family have had a long affinity with the island of Palawan. He and his brother Miguel set up Stellar Sea Farms to raise red tilapia in sea cages in Culion. They once owned Puerco Island in Green Island Bay and currently own Dilumacad or Helicopter Island in El Nido. In 2000, he co-founded Asian Conservation Company, an innovative venture philanthropy with like-minded conservationists, and together they acquired El Nido Resorts. With a management team from Next Century Partners, they transformed it into an award-winning eco-tourism destination in Palawan[22] and then sold it to Ayala Land in 2013.[23]