Insider Spotlight
• ICTSI EVP Christian Martin R. Gonzalez outlines long-term vision at Asia 21 Summit
• Says resilience, culture, and shared prosperity anchor sustainable growth
• Highlights risk-taking evolution and lessons from global crises
One of the featured speakers was Christian Martin R. Gonzalez, executive vice president of International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI), who oversees one of the world’s most geographically diverse port portfolios.
Gonzalez, who has led operations from Latin America to Africa, is known for driving ICTSI’s expansion into frontier markets while strengthening its culture of long-term stewardship.
Built to last
Gonzalez joined the panel titled “Built to last: sustaining vision, values, and growth across generations,” reflecting on how leadership evolves with experience.
“I was very risk averse as a younger man. I’m extremely risk-taking now,” he said.
Why frontier markets matter
Speaking on ICTSI’s operations in places such as Africa and Central America, Gonzalez noted how these environments shaped him.
“You know, operating in places like Congo and Madagascar and Honduras thickened my skin a lot,” he said.
What would surprise his younger self most, he added, is realizing that “you are not just an evil capitalist, right? There is kind of a model in the way that we do business.”
The role of capitalists
Gonzalez stressed why long-term value requires shared benefits. “If you are a catalyst to the economic growth of the country that you operate in, your business becomes extremely secure,” he said.
With concessions that may extend beyond 75 years, leaders must embrace reciprocity: “You must share the benefits of the business that you’re running… you become entrenched in that virtuous circle of creating economic growth and development within that poor community and the broader country as well.”
Lessons from crisis
For Gonzalez, crises define corporate character. “The best way, really, is to learn from your personal crisis,” he said.
At the same time, crises offer a chance “to create value,” recalling ICTSI’s role “during COVID-19 with the vaccines in the Philippines” and “quite a number of initiatives during the global financial crisis.”
Building the organization
Gonzalez said he would be proud “to build a business that is the biggest of its kind in the world.”
Achieving that, he emphasized, rests on people: “Hire people who are smarter than me, but who have the fit that I require to keep building the culture… not just maintaining the culture, but promoting the culture.”
He imagines future leaders looking back and saying, “I’m the guy [who] hired absolutely the right people… there’s going to be the biggest global container terminal in the world.”
Shared growth
“I certainly didn’t grow the business,” Gonzalez stressed. “There's a lot of other people in the company [who helped] over the last 37 years.”
A long-term view
ICTSI’s portfolio spans largely low and middle income markets.
“You would only find one OECD country, maybe two or three higher income countries,” he said of the portfolio.
These markets reflect “a kind of higher risk reward profile.”
But returns are measured over generations: “We’re not looking for that payback in four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 years only… How do we succeed for 25 years? How do we get a concession renewal, succeed for 50, succeed for 75 years?” —Ramon C. Nocon | Ed: Corrie S. Narisma
