elvira ablaza

President & CEO
Pacific Rim Innovation & Management Exponents,Inc.

Vi Ablaza, PRIMEX Founder, has been at the helm of the Company’s operations in the last 25 years, steering its evolution into the premier international consulting firm that it is today. Not only does she supervise PRIMEX‘s day-to-day operations, she also serves as Project Director for development projects where PRIMEX is the Lead Firm and takes on consulting assignments in fisheries, natural resources, and environment in the Philippines and the Asia-Pacific region.

She has directed or co-directed a large number of foreign-assisted projects in the Philippines and overseas and has served as Consultant to ADB, FAO, and CIDA projects in fisheries, natural resources, environment, and climate change for over three decades, including those in the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Viet Nam, and the Pacific region. As Director of the CIDA-funded Western Pacific Fisheries Consultative Committee (WPFCC), an inter-regional organization of countries in the ASEAN and Pacific Island Nations (PINs), Ms. Ablaza was a strong advocate of South-South cooperation in fisheries management between two groups of developing countries: those in the ASEAN and those in the Western Pacific.

Ms. Ablaza is also PRIMEX‘s chief quality assurance officer, ensuring the high quality of the Company’s performance and the timely and satisfactory delivery of its outputs. She is a ‘hands-on’ project director, personally supervising and monitoring the execution of the Company’s assignments by its staff and consultants. She also coordinates with clients, conducts the final review and edits on all project reports and submissions to clients, oversees financial management of project funds, and ensures the timely and satisfactory delivery of services to clients.

Aside from being an excellent manager, Ms. Ablaza is a highly skilled technical writer, editor, and conference organizer. She has written numerous technical papers and edited a large number of published and unpublished papers, reports, conference proceedings for various clients, including international organizations such as ADB, FAO, and CIDA.

In addition to her corporate responsibilities, Ms. Ablaza is actively involved in professional organizations like the Institute of Management Consultants of the Philippines (IMPHIL) and the Confederation of Filipino Consulting Organizations (COFILCO). She was the first woman President of both organizations.

Ms. Ablaza holds an MS in Biology (meritissimus) from the University of Santo Tomas (UST), Manila and a BS in Biology (magna cum laude) from the College of the Holy Spirit (CHS) Manila. In 1980, she was selected by FAO from a field of 200 nominees from all over the world as the first recipient of an FAO Professional Fellowship on the Fisheries Aspects of Integrated River Basin Development in Rome, Italy. In February 2013, she was recognized as one of 100 Most Distinguished Alumnae in the field of Science during the CHS Centennial celebrations. In October 2014, she was given the Gawad Pangisdaan award for being Outstanding Fisheries Practitioner for 2014 by the Philippine Fisheries Association (PFA).