MANILA, Philippines — Celeste Ilagan has been appointed president and chief executive-designate of the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines, becoming the first woman selected to lead the organisation.
Ilagan, currently the association’s chief operating officer, will succeed Jack Madrid on 11 October. Madrid will remain through 10 October while Ilagan works with board chair Ayhee Campos on the transition.
IBPAP represents the country’s technology and business-process-management sector, which includes customer service, finance, healthcare support, software and other outsourced professional services.
The appointment arrives as generative AI is disrupting many of the routine tasks on which outsourcing growth was built. Companies are automating some functions while seeking workers for more specialised services requiring analysis, communication, technical judgment and sector knowledge.
That transition has a gender dimension. Women hold a substantial number of service-sector jobs, including roles vulnerable to automation or intense performance monitoring. A successful response must therefore measure which workers are displaced, which receive training and whether new higher-value jobs are equally accessible to women.
Ilagan already oversees government-related initiatives and policy engagement for IBPAP. Her new position gives her greater influence over conversations involving education, investment incentives, labour standards, remote work and AI adoption.
Being the association’s first woman chief is historically significant, but the value of the appointment will be determined by outcomes. Industry-level targets could include women’s representation in technical and executive roles, promotion and pay data, protection against workplace harassment and access to employer-funded reskilling.
AI governance should be equally concrete. Workers need to know when automated systems evaluate their productivity, calls or employment prospects. Businesses also need clear rules for customer data, biometric monitoring and accountability when automated tools produce biased decisions.
IBPAP’s board said Ilagan brings continuity and detailed knowledge of the sector. Continuity can be valuable during technological disruption, provided it does not mean protecting existing business models at workers’ expense.
Ilagan will inherit an industry celebrated for generating employment and export revenue but facing a difficult question: how can it move toward more valuable digital work without leaving behind the women whose labour helped build it? Her leadership should be judged against that test.
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