Cesar Purisima

Cesar Purisima is a senior fellow of the Milken Institute, a global nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank, and a founding partner at IKHLAS Capital, a pan-Association of Southeast Asian Nations private equity platform.

He currently serves on the boards of the AIA Group, Ayala Corporation, Ayala Land, Universal Robina Corporation, Jollibee Foods Corporation, Bank of the Philippine Islands, BPI Capital Corporation, Unistar Credit and Finance Corporation, and the International School of Manila. He is a member of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation’s Global Advisory Council, ABS-CBN Corporation’s Board of Advisors, and Singapore Management University’s International Advisory Council in the Philippines. He is also an executive-in-residence at the Asian Institute of Management and is a member of the Bloomberg Task Force on Fiscal Policy for Health.

From 2010 to 2016, Purisima served as the secretary of finance of the Philippines and as the chair of the Economic Development Cluster of the president’s cabinet. He briefly served as finance secretary in 2005 and trade and industry secretary from 2004 to 2005. Additionally, he was a member of the monetary board of the Philippines Central Bank, and the governor for the Philippines at the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. He served as alternate governor for the Philippines at the International Monetary Fund. Under his leadership, the Philippines received its first investment-grade ratings. He was named Finance Minister of the Year seven times in six consecutive years by a number of publications, a first for the Philippines.

Prior to his tenure in government service, he was chairman and country managing partner of SGV & Co., the Philippines' largest professional services firm, and a member of Ernst & Young's Global Executive Board and Global Practice Council. Purisima obtained his bachelor of science degree in commerce, majoring in accounting and financial institutions, from De La Salle University in 1979 and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in 1983. 

In 2017, he was conferred a Knight in the National Order of the Legion of Honour by the French Republic (Chevalier dans l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur). In 2016, he was awarded the Order of Lakandula with the rank of Grand Cross (Bayani), one of the highest civilian honors from the president of the Philippines, for his contributions to the Philippine economy.