Their decades-old fierce rivalry may have started on the hard court but this year, the Ateneo Graduate School of Business (AGSB) and the De La Salle University’s College of Business are bringing the competition to the corporate boardrooms. The two business schools have partnered with Dutch financial giant ING Bank’s Manila subsidiary and the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX), the umbrella organization of more than 600 financial executives, to assist in the search for the country’s most outstanding chief finance officer (CFO).

Now on its fifth year, the ING-FINEX CFO of the Year Award has been discovering and honoring “heroes beyond the boardroom” whose excellence, strong leadership and stewardship have helped steer their organizations toward financial stability, benefitting not just their stakeholders, but also the domestic economy. As the academic partner institutions for the Search, AGSB and DLSU’s recently renamed Ramon V. del Rosario Graduate School of Business faculty and students will scour their respective alumni database and aid in the nomination process. This will be an intense but friendly competition between the two rival schools to have a member of their alumni to be the next “Super CFO” who holds the unique mix of having outstanding professional capabilities, high ethical standards, and strong survival instincts.

For Ateneo, known as a breeding ground for the country’s best corporate managers such as PLDT Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan, ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. Chairman Eugenio Lopez III, and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco, Jr., participating in the search is not about scoring more goals to produce more alumni CFO awardees than other schools.

“We found that there’s an alignment of the AGSB mission – which puts an emphasis on expertise, integrity and service – with the CFO of the Year criteria. We also saw the opportunity for our students to learn from the search process,” said AGSB dean Alberto L. Buenviaje.

For De La Salle, known for nurturing topnotch entrepreneurs such as taipan John Gokongwei, Jr. and Philippine Investment Management, Inc. (PHINMA) President and CEO Ramon del Rosario, Jr., participating in the ING-FINEX search is a way to expose its students to CFOs in the country and prepare them for the evolving roles.

Proof that one does not have to be a graduate of a finance course to be a CFO, RVR-GSB Dean Brian Gozun cited Delfin Gonzales, Jr., CFO of Ayala Corporation, who became the first ING-FINEX CFO of the Year awardee in 2007. He said Mr. Gonzales is a chemical engineering graduate of DLSU. “Apart from teaching the basics in finance and management, we want to teach our students the ethics and values that will make them deserve the title ‘super CFO’ in the future,” he said.

There is actually no blue or green academic pedigree required to clinch the ‘CFO of the Year’ title. Previous awardees Sherisa Nuesa, currently managing director of Ayala Corporation, is a graduate of Far Eastern University; Jose Sio, CFO of SM Investments Corporation, came from the University of San Agustin in Iloilo; and Ysmael Baysa, CFO of Jollibee Foods Corporation, graduated from Enverga University in Quezon province.

“The Search does not focus only on academic excellence, but more on what the CFO actually brings to the job,” said ING Bank Country Manager Consuelo Garcia. The award goes to exceptional CFOs who have the business acumen, regulatory and communication excellence, along with financial expertise, she added.

The Search is also not limited to the country’s top corporations, said Roberto Borromeo, Overall Chairman of the Search Committee. In fact, CFOs from any private local and multinational companies, as well as government-owned and controlled corporations and government financial institutions in the country, can be nominated. “You don’t need to be a FINEX member to be nominated or to nominate. However, the nominees must be endorsed by a FINEX member,” he explained.

Aside from the websites of the two business schools, nomination forms may also be obtained from the FINEX secretariat at Unit 1901, 139 Corporate Center, Valero St., Salcedo Village, Makati City, or downloaded at www.finex.org.ph. Completed nominations in compliance with certain documentary requirements must be sent to the FINEX secretariat office or emailed to admin@finex.org.ph on or before September 23, 2011. For more information, contact the FINEX secretariat at 811-4052 or visit www.finex.org.ph or check out the ING-FINEX CFO of the Year page on Facebook and on www.pressroom.ph.