Vince Perez
Mr. Pérez is an avid environment advocate and renewable energy investor. He is currently chairman of Alternergy, a wind, solar, run-of-river hydro power developer.
He has been an independent director of regional companies in Australia, the Philippines and Singapore. He is an independent director of ST Telemedia, the Temasek holding company for telecom, data centers and mobile technology, and an Independent Director of Banco de Oro, the Philippines’ largest commercial bank, and of Double Dragon Properties, a real estate developer. He is a member of the advisory boards of Bhutan Foundation, New Zealand Trade Enterprise, Geneva-based Pictet Clean Energy Fund, and the Yale Center for Business and Environment. He is also the Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of Bhutan to the Philippines.
His philanthropy is focused on the environment. Mr. Pérez has long been involved with Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), co-founded WWF-Philippines, served as trustee of WWF-International in Geneva, and currently is on the boards of WWF-China and WWF-US.
Mr. Pérez was Philippine Energy Minister from 2001 to 2005. He boosted energy self-sufficiency, promoted clean indigenous energy, and crafted an ambitious renewable policy framework. He served briefly in early 2001 as Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, and as vice chairman of the Philippines’ National Renewable Energy Board.
Prior to 2001, Mr. Pérez had 17 years’ experience first in Latin American debt restructuring at Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh, and later was involved in debt capital markets for emerging countries at Lazard in London, New York and Singapore. At 35, he became General Partner at New York investment bank Lazard Frères as head of its Emerging Markets Group. He was Managing Director of Lazard Asia in Singapore from 1995 until 1997.
Mr. Pérez founded Next Century Partners in 1997, a private equity firm based in Singapore that invested in wireless, semi-conductor, and plantation companies. In 2000, he founded Asian Conservation Company, a quadruple bottom line firm that acquired El Nido Resorts, an award-winning eco-tourism destination in Palawan. In 2006, he invested in Northwind, the first wind farm in Southeast Asia, He co-founded Alternergy in 2008 and Solar Pacific in 2013.
Mr. Pérez obtained an MBA from Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor's Degree in Business Economics from the University of the Philippines. He was a 2005 World Fellow at Yale University, where he lectured an MBA class on renewable power in emerging countries.
He has published a few books: “Chasing Moonlight” narrated a sailing voyage during his 50th year; “Chasing Sunsets” and “Chasing Sunrise”, two compilations of haiku poetry written during his travels; and “Chasing Cherry Blossoms”, a hiking travelogue with his brothers in Japan. He co-published “Voices from the Islands” featuring how El Nido Resorts became a showcase of sustainable tourism. He enjoys diving, nature travel and zen meditation, and is a student of “arnis”, a Filipino stick-fighting martial art. He and his wife Maria, a market research consultant, reside between Manila and Melbourne and together are blessed with three sons, a daughter and two grandchildren.