Top 100 Cebuano Personalities - Jose “Joe” Soberano III

CEBU, Philippines —  Fourteen years after Jose “Joe” Soberano III established his small real estate firm Cebu Landmasters Inc., he has grown to a national player, following the footsteps of his former employer Ayala Land Inc.

Joe, who was one of brains that helped the entry of Ayala Group to Cebu 30 years ago in the establishment of Cebu Business Park and Cebu IT Park, is now a significant contender in the real estate business particularly after he decided to register his company to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) in 2017.

His own CLI has already built 46 projects in seven key cities in Visayas and Mindanao.

About twenty more projects will be added in 2019.

A passionate Cebuano businessman, Joe is a graduate of AB Economics Degree from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1976, and completed the Strategic Business Economics Program (SBEP) at the University of Asia and the Pacific.

CLI went public in 2017, a bold move that allowed them to expand aggressively, thus, making the Cebuano mastery of building communities evident in the different locations they conquer.

Joe started his corporate career as a lending officer of Ayala Investment and Development Corp. (AIDC) for 23 years. He worked under the Ayala Group of Companies until he retired at 43 years old as senior division manager of Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) and as vice president of Cebu Holdings Inc.

At 43 years old, Joe started to his entrepreneurship journey, and now CLI is one of the biggest real estate developers in Southern Philippines.

He is certainly a leader of breaking the ground for homegrown companies to compete with giant players.  (FREEMAN)