Pinoy heads oldest Catholic university in the US

MANILA, Philippines - Blessed with exceptional managerial and leadership skills, Dr. Amado Gabriel “Gabe” Esteban is not only the first Filipino to be appointed to the highest position in a US university, he is also the first layman to head a Catholic university in the US. In January 2011, the boards of regents and trustees of Seton Hall University (SHU) under the archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey named him its first layman president since they changed the university’s bylaws in 1984. The 155-year-old SHU is the largest and oldest Catholic university in the state and the only diocesan university in the US.

Together with wife, Josephine, and their only daughter, Sasa, a straight-A student, Esteban recently visited the Philippines. We interviewed the couple at XO Bistro Filipino in Makati, which mesmerized them with its true Filipino atmosphere.

Esteban admits to being a very busy but approachable person. He says that one of the things that he and wife Jo like to do inside the SHU campus is to just sit down at the student cafeteria and chat with students or whoever they run into. “The food in our cafeteria is actually good; it’s better than the faculty lounge,” he laughs, Jo fixes the flaked pastry on top of his soup.

As Seton Hall’s president

Esteban says his management style is collaborative and consensual. “When you work with higher education, you realize that you really have to invest your time, your resources in working with your faculty and your staff because they are the greatest resource you have as a university. So you have to make sure that they’re invested in the direction you’re headed, invested in your mission,” he adds. He encourages his staff to give him inputs and recommendations but at the end of the day, he manages to make the final decision because it will be his “neck that’s on the line.”

He enumerates his priorities as (1) family, (2) the church and (3) work. “When I was with the business faculty, I used to say that work is number 4 and golf is number 3,” says the practical joker in him. “I believe in setting priorities but I don’t think work should be your number 1. Life is too short and my philosophy towards work is, ‘If I don’t enjoy the job, then I’m going to look for another job’.” He believes that when one finds his personal passion, one gives his 150 percent. He tells his staff that he wants them to want to come to work because there’s a difference between wanting and needing.

Esteban started as SHU’s provost or chief academic officer in 2007. It came to him as a big surprise when in June 2010, the chair of the board asked him if he would be willing to serve as an interim or acting president. “We did a search for the president when my predecessor announced that he was stepping down. It lasted for about three years. At the end, it didn’t result to a new president coming in,” Esteban explains. After six months in the position, he was appointed president and was given a five-and-a-half-year term, a privilege that he accepted with great honor.

In his Fall 2010 welcome message, he announced that SHU’s key goal was to strengthen its financial base. After more than a year, Esteban is proud to say that they have done well. “We’re embarking on a very aggressive strategic plan and we’re moving forward,” he exclaims.

The main reason of his recent visit to the Philippines was to implement the university’s strategic plan, which he had helped create when he was still its chief academic officer. Part of it is internationalization, where they select potential undergraduate students from other countries, such as the Philippines, to study in SHU. They invite deserving students based on their profiles, high SAT scores and the like. Service has always been part of servant leadership, which is the foundation of Seton Hall.

Math-derived romance

Last December, Esteban was named by the UP College of Business Administration in Diliman, Quezon, City as an outstanding alumnus. It was also in UP where the Estebans met, sometime during their junior year. Jo was a Business Administration major but wanted to join the Math Club and Esteban, a Math major, was at the time the chair of the membership committee of the club. “I had to personally review all the applicants,” he chuckles. And from there, they personally got to know each other better.

After college, he worked as a computer programmer at Metrobank for a year while Jo worked at City Trust. She ended up managing a branch on Aurora Blvd., across the old Magnolia Ice Cream House, where they would always hang out sweetly. “He would pick me up every afternoon and we’d cross the street and have banana split or chocolate parfait,” Jo reminisces.

The following year, he started his MBA in UP Diliman then served as an instructor there afterwards. After two years of returning service to his alma mater, he further studied in Hawaii and was studying in Japan when the 1986 People Power revolution broke out. He returned to the Philippines and ended up working at San Miguel Corp. while Jo briefly worked for USAID and NEDA. In 1988, Esteban went back to the US to pursue his PhD while Jo did her MBA.

We asked him why he specialized in that field when his family members are all educators and doctors. “I took up BS Math because… I didn’t want to study that long,” he laughs. Studying Medicine takes up seven to eight years. In that span of time, Esteban obtained two master’s degrees and one doctorate. At the end, the educator’s blood that runs in his family got the best of him and he eventually chose to stay in the academe. His first teaching job in the US was in 1992, at the University of Texas in Victoria.

On the Philippine education system

His late lolo was a school superintendent. His late dad, Dr. Jose Esteban, was a university professor at the College of Medicine in UP Manila and De La Salle Health Sciences Institute. His mom, Lita Munson Esteban, was a school teacher. His aunts and a younger brother also teach. And his sister is a college secretary in one of the UP campuses.

Education being close to his heart is an understatement. He tells about the Philippine education system and laments on what it is apparently lacking. “My lolo said that when he was studying in UP in the ‘50s, his classmates were usually from the provinces and public schools. But after a generation, a huge shift appeared. Most of my father’s classmates were already children of doctors, of those who ‘haves’,” he tells. He says that part of it was perhaps because of the deterioration on the elementary and high school education in the public schools. Those are no longer as competitive as private schools as they used to be. “I guess somewhere, there’s someone who might be the next president but doesn’t have the opportunities that the kids of 40 to 50 years ago had in terms of elementary to high school education and in terms of being able to get into great colleges and universities. I think that’s a big problem that not only the Philippines but almost all the developing countries really have to work on. Otherwise, you’re losing the entire poor but potentially-qualified kids.”

He points out that it’s not just a matter of providing great teachers and facilities. “It’s hard to go to school, to pay attention, if you’re hungry. But if you’re well-fed, even if it is just basic protein-rich food, I think it makes a difference,” he says, admiring schools and foundations that endeavor to feed impoverished students. He believes that education is more than a teaching vocation.

He also understands why most college graduates prefer blue collar jobs abroad or apply in other industries like call centers than teach. “If you’re a public school teacher in the Philippines and you have two or more kids, how and where can you live?”

“I have to say, if I look back at my career, I can still tell you the people who had the most influence on me. Other than my parents, it would be my professors. I remember my Grade 1 teacher, Mrs. Gloria, from Paco Catholic School. That was a long time ago. I still remember in my mind what she looks like,” he laughs at the thought.

“I remember my undergrad professors, the certain people who had influenced me when I was an MBA student, when I was a PhD student. But if you would ask me who the provost of the University of California Irvine was when I was a doctoral student there, I don’t have the slightest clue,” he jokes, but with an air of seriousness.