JOSE MARI B. PONCE

Dir. Jose Mari B. Ponce is an expert in the fields of resource mobilization, loan negotiations for Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects, project development and management, agribusiness, integrated area development and rural development, and management of integrated gaming operations, blockchain, fintech and tokenization of assets.

He is currently the President/ Chairman and Founder of InPlan Consultancy Services, Inc., the lead Director and Chairman of the Board of IMPERO Consortium Management Corporation in the Philippines and Japan, and a Director of the Philippines – China Economic Cooperation Industrial Park.

Prior to his directorship in the SBMA, he held the top position as Chairman and Administrator of the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) with a Cabinet rank for 13 years.

In 2004, he served as the Secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform, having risen from the ranks in the same agency upon entering government service in 1980.

Meanwhile, his career in the private sector started in 1977 as sales supervisor at A.J. Ponce and Associates, and culminated as the Executive Director of Wisbet Digital Entertainment Developing Co., Ltd. Taiwan in 2020.

Director Ponce has been recognized through several awards and citations from local and international organizations notably the World Bank in line with the implementation of the Agrarian Reform Communities Development Project, a plaque of recognition by the Center on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP) in Jakarta, Indonesia, Citations for Resource Mobilization by the UN-FAO, DAR Most Outstanding Performance Award (National), Outstanding Award of Excellence for Agrarian Reform (Presidential Agrarian Reform Council), and in 2004, a Citation from the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines citing him as one of the two best Agrarian Reform Secretaries to serve under DAR.

Director Ponce spearheaded the convening of the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD) in Porto Alegre, Brazil, with the objective of brining back agrarian reform into the international agenda. During his leadership in 2004, NEDA has cited the Department of Agrarian Reform in the MTPDP 2004-2010 as one the of top performers and one of the agencies which hit most of its key targets and commitments as compared to other agriculture-related sector agencies.

In 2005, he was appointed as Administrator, Chief Executive Officer and Acting Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority. Director Ponce, through his leadership, turned CEZA around from a losing government corporation to a self-sufficient and earning corporation, and among the fastest growing economic zones in the country in 2016.

He is married and blessed with 5 children, and presently resides in Quezon City.