BIZ BUZZ: Troubles mounting at Wack Wack

Members’ grumblings over how the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club is being governed have gotten even louder after respected executive and independent corporate director Celso Vivas tendered his resignation from the board of one of the country’s oldest and most exclusive golf clubs.

In a lengthy farewell message to his fellow members, Vivas, who had spent a good part of his career at SGV & Co., detailed his concerns over the entrenched “traditional governance” system that has led to some questionable decisions, on issues ranging from the three-year term for board directors to the P200-million sports center project and issuance of ancillary membership certificates.

Vivas, an independent director of Megawide Corp. and Keppel Holdings Inc., had wanted Wack Wack to be a “modern corporate governance player” that will embrace a rules-based, member-centered system that is aligned with global best practices, thus doing away with “traditional, informal, personality driven and vague decision-making practices.”

He underscored that with the Wack Wack membership composed mainly of professionals as well as business and government leaders, it is but fitting for the club “to also embrace modern corporate governance approaches.”

Doing so will not only protect the value of Wack Wack shares but also the prestige of the club founded in 1930 by American philanthropist and democracy advocate William “Bill” Shaw.

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But Vivas found out for himself how reformists can be pilloried and accused of wrongdoings, leading to his decision to end his service to the club “with a heavy heart” for “not being able to comprehend the underlying motives behind the unfounded allegations levied against me.”

Not a few of the members are sad to see him go, knowing that in the meantime, they will have to make do with a club that, according to Biz Buzz sources, have certainly seen better days.