07/11/2025
TWO PINAYS LAND ON FORBES ASIA'S POWER BUSINESSWOMEN 2025 LIST
Two Filipina executives, Mariana Zobel de Ayala and Mybelle Aragon-GoBio, have been named among Forbes Asia's Power Businesswomen in 2025.
In its annual list released on Nov. 3, Forbes listed 20 women leaders from across Asia who are making a significant impact on the region’s fast-evolving business and economic landscape.
"More than half of the women are high-performing professional managers with proven track records in fields such as banking, consumer goods and transportation. Three are first-generation entrepreneurs, including one who has launched two profitable unicorns," it said.
It also noted the trailblazers, including those involved in sectors powered by artificial intelligence and advanced tech, such as data centers, semiconductors, and rare earths, as well as those continuing family legacies.
Aragon-GoBio is the president and CEO of Robinsons Land under JG Summit, one of the Philippines’ largest conglomerates. She is the first woman and non-family member to lead the developer founded in 1980 by the late John Gokongwei. He was succeeded by his son and executive chairman, Lance Gokongwei, who called Aragon-GoBio “the best (hu)man for the job.”
According to Forbes Asia, the 52-year-old businesswoman joined the company in 1993 as an administrative assistant and was able to rise to the ranks by leading its logistics, residential, and office projects. She also created a five-year, ₱125 billion expansion plan ($2.2 billion) for the company in May.
By 2030, she plans to double net income to ₱25 billion, expand malls to 69, grow office space by 50% to 1.2 million square meters, increase hotel rooms by 25% to 5,300, double logistics capacity, and develop new mixed-use estates.
Aragon-GoBio holds degrees in management engineering and international business from the University of Antwerp.
Meanwhile, Zobel de Ayala is an eighth-generation heiress of the country's oldest conglomerate, Ayala Corp. She handles the leasing and hospitality business of its property arm, Ayala Land.
Under her leadership, the company’s redevelopment of eight existing malls and construction of new ones is projected to expand gross leasable area by a third, reaching 2.9 million square meters by 2028.
At the same time, she is overseeing a $500 million (₱29 billion) hospitality investment, which will nearly double Ayala Land’s hotel rooms to 8,000 by 2030.
This plan includes the 578-room New World Makati, acquired in June from Hong Kong’s New World Development, alongside upcoming openings of Mandarin Oriental, Marriott’s Moxy, and Hilton’s Canopy hotels in the Makati financial district next year, per Forbes.
"In March, Mariana was appointed Ayala Corp.’s managing director, 12 years after she left her job as an investment analyst at JPMorgan in New York to join her family’s 191-year-old, banking-to-property group," Forbes Asia noted.
The 36-year-old executive holds a bachelor's degree in Social Studies (Philosophy, Politics, and Economics) from Harvard University. She also earned an MBA from INSEAD in 2020. Three years later, she was named senior vice president at Ayala Land.
"The leasing and hospitality unit delivered a record ₱23.2 billion ($397 million) in sales in the first half of 2025, accounting for over a quarter of the Manila-based developer’s revenue," Forbes said.
In 2024, Lourdes Gutierrez-Alfonso, president of tycoon Andrew Tan’s property conglomerate Megaworld, was the only Filipino included in the list.
This story originally appeared on PhilSTAR Life. Graphics and edits by Destination PH.
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