That journey has now put the Megaworld president and CEO alongside Union Bank of the Philippines CEO Ana Maria Aboitiz Delgado, GCash CEO Martha Sazon and Land Bank of the Philippines CEO Lynette Ortiz as the only four Filipinas on Fortune’s 100 Most Powerful Women Asia list this year.
Gutierrez-Alfonso ranked 87th, up from 92nd last year, marking her third consecutive appearance and making her the only female leader from the Philippine real estate industry on the 2026 roster.
From upstart to property giant
The scale of Megaworld’s transformation can be seen in 37 townships across the country, a portfolio that has stretched the business well beyond the residential developments on which it was built.
Its office portfolio alone has grown beyond 1.7 million square meters of gross leasable area, housing multinational names such as JPMorganChase, Google, Samsung and Tesla.
Another growth engine has emerged in hospitality, where Megaworld now operates 17 hotels with about 8,500 rooms and is deepening its partnership with Accor through Mercure Mactan Cebu and the conversion of the 1,530-room Grand Westside Hotel into Mövenpick Manila Bay Westside.
Bigger footprint, bigger profits
The expansion has paid off financially, with Megaworld more than doubling annual net income from about P11.8 billion in 2016 to a record P24 billion in 2025.
Profit climbed another 5 percent to P12.7 billion in the first half of 2026, with offices, malls and hotels contributing to growth.
Gutierrez-Alfonso now oversees a business that also includes 27 lifestyle malls and a growing conventions operation, including Mactan Expo, which recently hosted the 48th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit.
Her Fortune ranking may be the news peg, but the bigger business story is the nearly four-decade climb alongside Megaworld itself, from an upstart developer to a nationwide property group spanning townships, offices, malls and hotels.
—Edited by Miguel R. Camus
