app. Unilever Unisearch Who's Who (Sixties to 1999)

This post is a break from the serialized autobio. There are more about Unisearch in the later chapters. This entry is just a recounting of names of those who have been with me in Unisearch either as a Unilever, SRG or as an ACnielsen company.

In PRC, market research was the backdoor to getting into brand management. There have been quite a number of research analysts who made the leap to brand management after gaining two to three years experience in market research work. They become attractive to marketing managers because their experience in the markets they service become extensive and in depth. Presentations of research results were the showcases of their talents and the extent of knowledge they have of markets. The outstanding research executives invariably get tapped to go to marketing.

The people who have made the move to brand and to subsequent upward appointments outside PRC were Angie Lacson who at present is a Vice President of Ayala Land; Maricelle Narciso, who applied for a management trainee position in Personnel but was rejected in favor of a male candidate. She was persuaded to join market research but eventually transferred to brand management. She is now Marketing Director of Pepsi Cola. Other success stories are Jun Alcantara, Vice President for Marketing, Asia Breweries; Nena Barredo, Managing Director of Millward Brown; and Issa Baron, research consultant. Ed Cruz joined Mang Bert Timbol in Masscom, the media buying company that was set up exclusively for Unilever where he is EVP. Other successful Unisearch alumnae were Evelyn Gancayco, who occupied a senior research position in San Miguel and later on as marketing executive of Goldilocks. Other alumnae who have made their marks in the industry are Dedette Gamboa, Senior Executive, MBL Trends; Joy Isla, Senior Manager, Unilever; Marivic Azuelo, became General Manager of Kraft Foods; Joy Mangahas, with Manufacturer’s Life and others like Margot Balderas who specialized in the telecoms industry. Meng Estrada, Lulu Samson, Leila Tolentino went on to handle responsible marketing positions in multinational companies. Some of the guys who have had short stints in Unisearch were the super successful Ding Salvador who became the Asean President of Johnson and Johnson; Luvi Lim, who was the marketing director of Wander Philippines who now is in the US and Tony Castro, a marketing executive. The success stories of Unisearch alumni are plentiful.

Those mentioned were those who went to brand management after Unisearch. The success list goes on to include those who did not pass through brand management. Leading this group is Efren Samonte who became the commercial director of PRC; Peachy Badilla, Marketing Director of Marketing group selling high-end products; Pete Bernardo, became Research Manager of CocaCola, now a retired resort owner in Pangasinan. Slim Quiambao, owner of Business Workshop, Inc. a research company who was a major manpower resource to Unisearch and later to ACNielsen; Benjie Encarnacion, Vice President for Research in Nestle, Philippines; Ching Lacson became an official of Central Colleges of the Philippines, Cely Corpuz completed a successful career in Unilever as a manager in marketing services and later on as consultant; Chiqui Lara, Vice President, Basic Advertising, George Sison, distributor of Unilever Products, the late Meng Lim who at her time occupied important positions in various research organizations; Reena Murga became Research Manager of Unilever, Abby Limqueco joined Citibank as a manager in research: Nelia Fabie who held a senior position at ACNielsen, the largest research organization worldwide, now a director of Unisolutions' branch in Vietnam. Unisolutions is a research company founded by Gerry Soleminio together with Ed Sanchez, Dodie Santamaria and Jun Rafael. The presidency of this company was offered to me at its inception but I chose not to be involved since I had a commitment to ACNielsen to inhibit myself from doing market research work as a business for a period of two years after retirement.

The former heads of the PRC research unit who have had illustrious and successful careers after Unilever research would include Bert Timbol who organized and ran Masscom, the media buying company who bought media exclusively for Unilever; the late Ato Maningat who became the commissioner of the Public Estates Authority; Nonoy Reyes had a stint as managing director of Lintas, Indonesia and is now a successful businessman and Ding Malvar who migrated to the US in the late seventies and joined a utilities company doing load management. There would be other names that I have failed to include who might more than deserve a mention in our list of Unisearch success stories due to my limited range of contacts and unfamiliarity with those who were ahead of me in Unisearch.

The Unisearch trade name ceased to exist upon the unification of ACNielsen, Unisearch and ACNielsen, Pulse to become ACNielsen, Philippines in 1999.It would be impractial to make an account of every associate in the merged company which I became head of in 1999 to 2002. I have limited the list to the associates whom I worked with in my years with Unisearch, first as General Manager of the division of the Unilever company and later as Managing Director of an independent company when it became a part of the SRG network and later as a unit of ACNielsen. I have listed hereunder the list of associates who have been with Unisearch both as Unilever and as non-Unilever. The list ends in 1999 when we finally had to drop the Unisearch name in favor of a more appropriate corporate appellation ACNielsen, Philippines. The bulk of the names in the Unilever Unisearch listing were generated in 1997 when we celebrated the golden anniversary of Unisearch, the initial unit being organized in 1947. The list covering the years 1990 to 1999 are fairly accurate because of current existing records. I hope these lists will make up for any omission that I might have made in the manuscript.

List of Unisearch (Unilever) associates from late sixties to 1989

• ABDULLAH, LINDA • CHAVES de, RODEL • LAVINGCO, LINDA • RADAZA, ANGEL

• ACOMPANADO, AGUSTIN • CIFRA, ELVIE • LEON de, ADORA • RAMA dela, RUTH

• ACOSTA, FELY • COMETA, VIRGIE • LIM, LULU (Samson) • RANIN, WENA

• AGBAYANI, VICKY • CORPUZ, CELY • LIM, LUVI • REGNER, ALMA

• AGUILAR, JOHN • CRUZ, ARIS • LIM, MENG+ • REYES, NONOY

• AGUINALDO, PATSY • CRUZ, ED • LIM, MILA • REYES, NORI

• ALBANO, GLADYS • CUQUECO, LORETO • LIMQUECO, ABBY • ROA, ED

• ALCANTARA, JUN • DIAZ, LINA • LONGAKIT, BETH+ • RODRIGUEZ, JOSE+

• ALCID, RUBEN • DIZON, CITA • LONTOC, BUTCH • ROMERO, VIRGIE

• ALETA, VIOLY • DIZON, PRISCILLA • LUMBRES, MEDING • ROQUE, BAY

• ALLEGO, MATHESSA • DOMINGO, PAT • MACANDOG, LILIA • ROSARIO, del JULIUS

• ALONSO, MARMI • EMMANUEL, MARLU • MALICDEM, GRACE • SALES, PATROCINIA

• ANDALIO, OMPONG • ENCARNACION, BENJIE • MALUBAG, GRETA • SALVADOR, DING

• ANG, NANETTE • ESGUERRA, FRANKIE • MALVAR, DING • SAMONTE, EFREN

• ANZURES, RUDY • ESPIRITU, MARISSA • MANGAHAS, JOY(Fernando) • SAN JUAN, EDEM(CARAYO)

• AQUINO, LULU • ESTRADA, MENG • MANINGAT, ATO+ • SARTHOU, ROSALIE

• AZUELO, AIDA • FABIE, NELIA • MANZANO, CLARISSA • SECOQUIAN, RACKIE

• AZUELO, MARIVIC • FELICIO, GRACE(Paulino) • MARASIGAN, OLIVE • SEGADOR, JIMMY

• BADILLA, PEACHY • FRANCIA, BOBBY • MARTINEZ, OLIVE • SIPIN, MONIQUE(Carale)

• BALDERAS, MARGOT (Torres) • GALIAN, VIGING • MILAN, LYNETTE • SISON, GEORGE+

• BANCOLITA, ANGEL • GAMBOA, DEDETTE • MOLINA, JOSIE •

• BARANDA, LILY+ • GANADEN, JESS • MOMBAY, SANDY • SUNIO, EDITH

• BARANGAN, ERNIE • GANCAYCO, EVELYN • MONTERON, BERT • TABADA, JOE

• BARON, Issa (Abadsantos) • GENEROSO, AGGIE • MONTINOLA, APPLE • TAMAYO, BETTY

• BARREDO, FLORA • GENEROSO, BOMBI • MURGA, REENA • TILLAH, CHARMAINE+

• BARREDO, NENA • GIMENA, VICKY • NARCISO, MARICELLE • TIMBOL, BERT

• BAUTISTA, CECILLE • GUANCO, PRIMA • NAVARETTE, ABET+ • TOLENTINO, LEILA

• BAUTISTA, CHERRY • GUERRERO, BILL • NOGOY, LISA • TORRE, FELNA +

• BAUTISTA, VIOLETA • GUZMAN de, MANNY • NUGUID, ELVIE • TORRES, RUBY

• BELTRAN, JANE • GUZMAN de, MARISSA • OCAMPO, LUCY • TUMANENG, LEX

• BERNABE, LOLET • HAWKINS, BETH • OPPUS, BONG • USISON, ROSALIE

• BERNARDO, PETE • HEREDIA, IMELDA • ORUGA, DO + • VALENCIA, JULIE

• BERTIS, PETE • HERNAEZ, MARY • OSIN, JUN • VALENZUELA, TESS C.

• BONDOC, ROLLY • HERNAEZ, NENA • PAJAS, MALOU(Vinzon) • VEGA, dela RUDY

• BRAVO, BETH • HIPOLITO, JAMES • PANGILINAN, LEN • VERACRUZ, BETH

• BUENAVENTURA, PEN+ • ISLA, JOY • PASCUAL, LILIAN • VICQUIERRA, AVELINA

• CABRIETO, HELEN • JALOCON, AIDA • PASION, RUBY • VICTORIA, NITTO

• CALDERON, ROSE • JALOCON, OGIE+ • PEREY, BABY • VILLAR, JOJO

• CANTILLEPS, ANGIE • JUGO, MARIVI

• PEREZ, CARMEN • VILARBA, EFREN

• CANTOR, RAMON • LACSON, ANGIE • PEREZ, DOMING • VILLEGAS, RIC

• CAPUNONG, FLORENCE • LACSON, CHING • PILAPIL, CARINA • VITUG, VIC

• CASTILLO del, ERNIE • LAGDAMEO, MIA • QUIAMBAO, SLIM • YLAGAN, ESTRELLA

• CASTRO, TONY • LARA, CHIQUI • QUINONES, BABY

• CEBRERO,CECILLE • LAT, ERROL • QUINTOS, BELLA

a.

2.

List of associates who joined Unisearch as an SRG & ACNielsen company (1990 to 1999)

3.

AGUILERA, GRACE ENGUERRA, LILIA C. MONTECLARO, MAE SANGA, DYRA

ALAMIL, MAYBELLE ESCOBER, HARRIET NOLAN, MICHELLE SOLEMINIO, GERRY

ALMADEN, ELSA EVANGELISTA, RHONNEL PAJAS, MALOU(Vinzon) SORNILLO, MARICEL

ALMONTE, BERNICE FLORES, TINA PALACIOS, AVELYN SURIA, SARITA

ALTAMIRA, PRINCESS GADOR, KAREN(SISON) PALMA, KAREN SY, GLENDA

ANG, NELLIE GALICIA, MYRIAN PARCON, JASON TALENS, OLIVE

ASONG, MARJO GASPAR, ERWIN PASTORIZA, ARLENE TANQUERIDO, GIRLIE

BALDERAMA, NINI GAVIOLA, MILETTE PINEDA, ISABELITA TAYAO, AGNES

BAUTISTA, DIONETTE GUEVARRA, YET RAFAEL, ER TOLENTINO, REGGIE

BELIZARIO, MIMI HOFER, ELAINE RAS, GRACE TULIPAT, MARITES

BERMUDEZ, NENET IGAYA, GRACIE RAVASCO, GRACE TURINGAN, RINA

BLANCO, KARLA IWAKAWA, LYNA REFUERZO, BELEN UBONGEN, GLADYS

BUENAVENTURA, CES LABIDA, ARIEL RESARI, JEANETTE URUBIO, PETE

CABADING, LILIA LABIT, MAAN RESURECCION, GIA VALENCIA, JENNIFER

CABALLERO, ROSANNA LAQUIAN, JACQUELINE REYES delos, MIKE VALES, TISH

CACANINDIN, GERRY LAROYA, LOTH REYES, AMBO VICTORIANO, BENG

CHAN, INTANG LEMEN, GREGORY REYES, JUNE VILLAREAL, RAQUEL

CRUZ dela ED LEONARDO, ROBERT REYES, MIEL VIRAY,TONTON

DAVID, ED LIAMPO, PEGGY RICAMARA, LISA VIRTUCIO, ELLEN

DEGUZMAN,CLAIRE LIM, BERNIE RIVERA, DEL YANGO, PEPITO

DELA PAZ, ANGGE MAGBAG, TWINKLE ROSARIO del, NICEY YAP,PAMELA

DELFIN, DAISY MAGPANTAY, FEDDIE ROSARIO, del JULIUS YU, LEAH

DELOS SANTOS, GAY MALONG, GEMMA SAAVEDRA, ALBY YUIPCO, LINDA

DENOPRA, JEANNETTE MANIO, PETE SALVINO, KAI

DIAZ, MELISSA MAYUGA, JEN SAN AGUSTIN, JENNY

DIZON, LITO MIRANDA, JOJO SANBENITO, DINA