The Asian Institute of Management’s (AIM) Career Services Office (CSO) held a signing of Memoranda of Understanding at the AIM Main Campus on Friday, 15 September, solidifying separate partnerships with two reputable companies, QBO Innovation Hub and Resilient.PH.
QBO Innovation Hub is a Philippine-based incubator which helps start-ups find their footing in the local business ecosystem. They offer consulting services, investor matching, workshops, networking events, pitches, incubation, and other activities to over 700 budding businesses. According to QBO’s President, Rene “Butch” Meily, “Start-ups are going to be the next pillar in the Philippine economy.”
Resilient.PH is the brainchild of AIM Alumnus, Augustus Caesar Esmeralda, MM 97 and EMDRCM 2020. The company is a social enterprise focused on advancing resilience programming across communities and institutions in the Philippines. Esmeralda asserts that to be a truly effective organization, “We must go down to the level of students.”
Head of the Stephen Zuellig School of Development Management, Dr. Olivier Roche, on behalf of AIM’s President and Dean, Dr. Jikyeong Kang, expressed his excitement with the signing, saying that it embodies what AIM is all about. He further elaborates that it is AIM’s mission to be part of the business community, with the Institute’s faculty being actively involved. Academic Program Director of the Master in Entrepreneurship program, Enrique Caeg, also showed his enthusiasm towards the signing, stating how the two partner companies symbolize what the Master in Entrepreneurship and the Master in Disaster Risk and Crisis Management programs are all about.
The professors and their respective counterparts in both organizations signed the two Memoranda of Understanding cementing AIM’s partnership with QBO Innovation Hub and Resilient.PH. Among the attendees from QBO were Executive Director, Katrina Chan and Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Specialist, Jose Luis O. Manguiat. As for Resilient.PH, those who also joined the event were its Co-Founder, Walter Panganiban, General Manager, Dojie San Pablo, and Operations Manager, Jefferson Sejaldo.
The event concluded with a speech by AIM Associate Dean, Dr. Michelle Antero who delivered a personal anecdote about her own start up journey as a technology specialist working abroad.
For inquiries about the AIM Career Services Office’s partnership opportunities, events, and activities, reach out to us via email at careerservices@aim.edu.
