Doris Magsaysay Ho: Nation-builder

For nearly two decades, the Ramon V. del Rosario Award for Nation Building has recognized Filipino business leaders who demonstrate that business can be more than the pursuit of profit. It can build institutions, create opportunities, and make lives better.

The award, established by Junior Chamber International Manila, De La Salle University (DLSU), the Asian Institute of Management, and the Phinma Group in honor of the late Ramon V. del Rosario Sr., recognizes three qualities. The first is entrepreneurial spirit: seeing an opportunity, taking the risk, and building something that endures. The second is national or global impact: creating meaningful change for Filipinos and contributing to the country’s standing in the world. The third is corporate citizenship and social responsibility: putting people and communities at the center of business.

Over the years, the award has gone to an extraordinary roster of Filipino business leaders, from former Ambassador to the United Kingdom Jesus Tambunting, Washington SyCip, Vicente Paterno, Senen Bacani, Oscar Lopez, Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, Manuel Pangilinan, Henry Sy Sr., George Ty, Dr. Aris Alip, Diosdado Banatao, Tony Tan Caktiong, and former Ambassador to the Holy See Howard Dee.

The quality and prestige of the award are defined by its recipients.

That continues this year.

Measured against every criterion the award has applied through the years, the strongest record belongs, for the first time, to a woman, whose career embodies what RVR believed business should ultimately do: make lives better.

Doris Magsaysay Ho inherited a family shipping business and transformed it into one of Asia’s leading maritime and human resource organizations, while building a diversified enterprise spanning shipping, logistics, human resources, hospitality, and travel.

But the more important story is what she chose to see as the business’s greatest asset: not the ships, but the Filipino worker.

Under her leadership, the Magsaysay Group helped establish the MOL Magsaysay Maritime Academy in Cavite, investing in the training and development of the next generation of maritime professionals. It was a recognition that the competitiveness of Philippine shipping depends on the capabilities, dignity, and welfare of the people who power it.

Filipinos account for more than a quarter of the world’s maritime workforce, making the industry an important source of employment, remittances, and economic activity. Magsaysay Ho has also carried the Philippine perspective into international business and policy forums. She represented the country on the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council and served as its chair, and became the first woman to chair the Steamship Mutual Underwriting Association. Across these roles, she has advocated for more inclusive approaches to business.

That is national and global impact.

Magsaysay Ho has built an architecture of care around her people, encompassing employee welfare, health and safety, financial capability, social development, and workplace gender equity. Her approach recognizes that responsibility does not end when an employee is recruited or deployed.

Her purpose has been her people: to recruit, train, deploy, support, and ultimately bring them home with more than they left with.

Her career illustrates all three dimensions of the award. She transformed a family shipping company into a platform for Filipino talent, carried the Philippine flag into global boardrooms and policy forums, and built systems of care around workers and their families.

She did all this in an industry where, not so long ago, a woman in the room was the exception.

The 2026 Ramon V. del Rosario Award for Nation Building therefore recognizes more than a successful business leader. It recognizes an idea of leadership: that entrepreneurship can create opportunity, Philippine talent can compete globally, and an enterprise is measured not only by what it builds, but by what it does for people.

For her entrepreneurial leadership in building one of Asia’s leading maritime and human resource organizations; for her service representing the Philippines on the global stage; for her lifelong commitment to the welfare, dignity, and development of Filipino workers; and for demonstrating that business can make lives better while contributing to nation-building, the 2026 Ramon V. del Rosario Award for Nation Building will be conferred upon Doris Magsaysay Ho, president and chief executive officer of the Magsaysay Group, in appropriate ceremonies on Nov. 19, 2026.

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Ramon del Rosario Jr. is former chair and current trustee of the Makati Business Club. He is also the co-convenor of Roundtable for Inclusive Development and co-chairs the Phinma-DLSU Center for Business and Society, which advocates that business should be a force for good.

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Business Matters is a project of the Makati Business Club (makatibusinessclub@mbc.com.ph).