Jeffrey O. Tarayao

(Guest Speaker)

Jeff Tarayao has twenty years – experience in managing corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate foundations, community relations, sustainability strategy and reporting, and communications. He has extensive experience on developing strategies for creating shared value programs, corporate-community partnerships and sustainable development strategies. Jeff is the Chief Corporate Social Responsibility Officer of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) and concurrently, the President of One Meralco Foundation (OMF). Prior to Meralco, he worked in Globe Telecom as Head of Community Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility.

Jeff served in the inaugural board of trustees of the Humanitarian Leadership Academy based in London, United Kingdom from 2016 to 2019. He also served as Chairman of the League of Corporate Foundations in the Philippines, President of the Coalition for Better Education, trustee of the International Association of Business Communicators Philippines and, trustee of Caritas Margins – the social enterprise program of the Archdiocese of Manila.

In Meralco, he led the transformation of the company’s corporate social responsibility program from a grant-driven to a more strategic approach by utilizing the company’s competencies in energy solutions, to address inclusion and sustainability issues. As President of OMF, he led the expansion of its community electrification program benefiting at least 56,000 low-income households in the Meralco franchise area in the past ten years. In 2012, he launched the Foundation’s School Electrification program which improved the learning experience in off-grid island and mountain public schools in the Philippines by providing them stand-alone solar power systems. This program which has energized 265 remote public schools benefiting 83,000 students (as of end July 2021) has been recognized as the best CSR program in the Platts Global Energy Award in 2013 in New York City, and received Gold awards in the International Business Awards in Toronto, Canada in 2015 and in Rome, Italy in 2016.

The programs he managed in the past 20 years have been awarded by numerous organizations here and abroad including the Management Association of the Philippines’ CSR Leadership Challenge, the Asian CSR Award, the Global CSR Awards, the International Gold Quill in New York, Corporate Governance Asia’s Best CSR Award (Hong Kong), Asian Corporate Excellence and Sustainability (Singapore), International Business Awards (Stevies) and the Platts Global Energy awards. In November 2019, One Meralco Foundation was also the recipient of the ASEAN Rural Development and Poverty Eradication Leadership award for its various poverty alleviation projects. Tarayao has also spoken on CSR, Sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, India, China, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Jeff was chosen as one of Manila’s 40 under 40 International Development Leaders given by the Washington DCbased Development Exchange in 2012. The Asia-New Zealand Foundation also recognized him as one of Asia’s Young Business Leaders in 2014. In 2011, he was chosen as one of the Asia 21 Fellows of the Asia Society, a group of emerging leaders of Asia below 40. Tarayao obtained his Master of Sustainable Development degree from the Faculty of Science and Engineering of Macquarie University in Sydney in 2018 as an Australia Awards Scholar. He completed his undergraduate studies cum laude from the University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines with a degree in Communication Arts in 2001. He is also a lecturer on Corporate Social Responsibility and Good Governance in the College of Commerce and Business Administration of the University of Santo Tomas.