Chemrez exec named finalist in Asia Business Leaders' Award

MANILA, Philippines - A top executive of Chemrez Technologies Inc. has been named one of the 12 finalists in the Asia Viewers’ Choice Award for the prestigious 8th CNBC Asia Business Leaders’ Awards (ABLA).

Chemrez managing director and COO Dean Lao Jr. was nominated by the University of Chicago and CNBC for the Asia Viewers’ Choice Award.

Lao is the only Filipino executive to make it to the final 12. CNBC is counting votes collected from its contest webite http://www.cnbc.com/id/ 33017147 for finalists until Oct. 23.

CNBC will broadcast the ABLA LIVE for the first time. The event will be broadcast from the Capella hotel in Singapore on Nov. 26, at 8 p.m. (SIN/HK), with a same-day delayed broadcast in the US and Europe. 

Only two Filipinos have won in the ABLA: Jollibee Foods Corp.’s Ernesto Tanmantiong as Asia Corporate Citizen of the year during the 5th ABLA and Globe Telecom’s Gerardo Ablaza Jr. as Asia Business Leader of the year and CEO’s Choice of the Year during the 3rd ABLA.

Chemrez Technologies is a specialty chemicals producer in the Philippines. As its managing director, Lao oversees the marketing, production and technical developments of the company’s diverse product line that includes biodiesel, oleochemicals, resins, colorants and additives.

Lao was integral in the Philippines’ advocacy for renewable fuels by steering Chemrez into forming partnerships and investing in research and development to come up with baseline data on the benefits of using coco-biodiesel.

In 2007, the Philippines became the first country in Asia to mandate the use of biodiesel with the passing of the Biofuels Act of 2006 (Republic Act 9367).

With Lao at the helm, Chemrez has been earning a reputation as a green technology company by using cutting-edge R&D to produce environment-friendly chemicals which mainly use organic substitutes for petroleum-based products.

Lao developed the concept of Green Chemistry to change the impression that chemical companies are harmful or hazardous to the environment. – Donnabelle Gatdula