On Tuesday, the 54-year-old Cruz was officially appointed president and CEO of Globe Telecom, the industry giant backed by Ayala Corp., the Philippines’ oldest conglomerate with interests in banking, real estate, energy and manufacturing.
Standing on stage at the Fairmont Makati hotel ballroom, the former Unilever and Airtel Nigeria leader, who was wearing a dark navy blue suit and white dress shirt without a tie, looked at ease.
His left leg was casually crossed over the other as he unveiled his ambition to transform Globe into the “largest, most profitable and most admired telco operator in the country.”
It’s a goal that’s been set from a position of strength.
Globe is at the top of its game as the No. 1 mobile player in the country—a status that was cemented during the 16-year tenure of his predecessor, Ernest Cu.
“I think it’s a blessing to inherit a company where we are No. 1 in the largest segment of the industry,” Cruz said.
“In terms of disruption, I think at Globe, we’re known to be innovators in the industry. We’ve innovated in our core business, telco, we’ve innovated around our ecosystem with Mynt, GCash, our portfolio companies, and we will continue to innovate and disrupt ourselves in order to win the marketplace,” he added.
Marching orders
There’s plenty of work left to improve the telco side of the business.
With the mobile market appearing saturated, Globe still has growth levers to pull through its 61 million mobile users and digital payments giant GCash, which serves 8 out of 10 Filipinos.
Juan Carlo C. Puno, Globe’s chief financial officer, also pointed to strong business demand for data centers.
He underscored plans to realign the company’s venture capital investments to better fit its core in telecommunications.
“The shift in the priority of the group is to look at directly telco adjacent portfolio companies,” he said during the press briefing.
Efficient spending, investing
This also ties with the company’s goals to operate and invest more efficiently to ensure profit growth and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization margin of at least 50 percent.
“Cost efficiency is important because it creates sustainability,” Puno explained.
New opportunities
Darius Delgado, Globe’s chief commercial officer, said tools such as artificial intelligence for customer service and personalization will play key roles.
He added that broadband industry utilization remains at 30 percent, which means there’s growth and market share still to be captured.
Businesses, including small enterprises, continue to lag in digitalization, presenting another significant market for Globe, Delgado said.
Consumer background
Cruz, a Bachelor of Science in Marketing Management graduate from De La Salle University, pledged to adopt a customer-centric approach to doing business.
This is a segment that plays to his strengths.
After all, he spent three decades at Unilever, starting out as a sales trainee in the early ’90s and eventually taking on senior roles overseas, including managing director of Unilever West Africa and chair of Unilever Sri Lanka.
He became CEO of Airtel Nigeria, part of the continent’s second-largest telco, from 2023 until he left to join Globe as deputy CEO at the start of 2025.
Cruz said his stint in Africa taught him resilience, having navigated wild currency swings and Nigeria’s volatile economic environment.
Still, he thrived despite those tough conditions.
“So hopefully my experience in the fast-moving consumer goods industry, where its consumer driven, consumption driven, will also bode well for Globe,” he said.
“The thing that is quite similar in most markets that I have been into is the fact that if you focus on the customer, which I think Globe does very well, and if we execute in the market, whether offline or online, we will continue to be the leading telco in the Philippines,” he added.
Analysts’ view
Peter Garnace, telco analyst at Unicapital Securities, said Cruz’s appointment comes at a pivotal moment, with Globe facing rising competition amid changing consumer preferences.
“While Cruz will inherit a strong and agile telco behemoth built by his predecessor, he will also face a huge challenge of steering Globe through an increasingly competitive telco sector, underpinned by a fast-evolving digital needs of customers,” he said in a message to InsiderPH.
“We see this heightened competition to continue to weigh on Globe’s core telco segments, nevertheless, we expect Cruz’ extensive experience in the telco sector, combined with his expertise in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) to infuse Globe with renewed focus on customer-centric strategies and innovations, harnessing its competitive edge to enhance the digital lifestyle of Filipinos,” Garnace said.
“Furthermore, we anticipate Cruz to play a key role in Globe’s digital transformation, particularly as its subsidiary, GCash, prepares for a record-breaking IPO [initial public offering] in the Philippines,” he added.
What’s next?
Cruz sees a bright future for Globe and its growth prospects, potentially improving on the company’s current projection of the “low to mid single-digit revenue increase” for 2025 in the years ahead.
“We should be able to see an acceleration, because as the economy improves and we continue to be the fastest-growing digital economy in Southeast Asia, then that low to mid single-digit growth should improve,” he said.
Miguel R. Camus has been a reporter covering various domestic business topics since 2009.
