The Yuchengco Group of Companies (YGC), one of the country’s largest and oldest conglomerates, advances in its digital transformation journey with key additions to its leadership team. The initiatives start with the appointment of FinTech industry leader and inclusive digital finance expert, Lito Villanueva to the group’s investment holding company, the House of Investments (HI).

Villanueva takes on the role of Chief Digital Transformation Advisor beginning April 22, 2019. The first and only Filipino included in the list of Asia’s 100 FinTech leaders, Villanueva is a respected champion in digital transformation and financial inclusion. He brings to the Group over 20 years of solid experience in banking, payments and telecommunications.

He is the founding chairman of FinTech Alliance.ph, an industry group representing more than a third of the country’s registered FinTech companies. He is also the president of the Nestor A. Espenilla, Jr.’s Institute for Growth towards National Inclusion, Transformation, and Empowerment (IGNITE). IGNITE is a multi-stakeholder, research-based, and data-driven advocacy and social transformation initiative championing inclusive development.

His appointment in YGC will strengthen the digital backbone of the conglomerate, allowing the group to fast track the development of game-changing technological strategies and innovations.

“We look forward to the expertise of Mr. Villanueva, and the wealth of experience that he brings to the Group as we move forward with this exciting journey towards digital transformation,” Chairperson Helen Y. Dee said.

Prior to joining YGC, he was the Managing Director of FINTQnologies Corporation of the PLDT Group and one of the founding executives of PLDT and Smart Communications’ Voyager Innovations. In this role he drove various award-winning, consumer-centric and demand driven financial innovations. He built and scaled the Philippines’ largest digital lending service called Lendr. Under his term, FINTQ was named BSP’s Most Outstanding Financial Inclusion Partner in 2018 and received over 50 other global and regional awards.

Over the span of his distinguished career, Villanueva worked for and acted as consultant for notable organizations, among them the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Landbank of the Philippines, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Visa.

He earned two graduate degrees, a Master in Public Administration with magna cum laude honors at the University of Santo Tomas, and a Master in National Security Administration at the National Defense College of the Philippines. He finished his undergraduate course also at the University of Santo Tomas where he got an AB Political Science degree.