Rowena Subido

Rowena Subido brings over 37 years of HR experience to her role as First Senior Vice President and Group Head of Human Resources at RCBC, a position she has held since 2012. She also chairs the Yuchengco Group of Companies HR Council, driving talent governance across the conglomerate.

Subido previously held an HR senior leadership role for Citibank’s consumer, corporate and CitiFinancial businesses, as well as HR leadership roles in manufacturing and retail, including GUESS USA in the Philippines. A University of Santo Tomas graduate, she is recognized for her practical and people-centered leadership style.

Recognizing Subido’s leadership in driving people transformation at RCBC, this article highlights how her inclusive and collaborative approach has shaped a culture that prioritizes people.

AT A GLANCE:

• Collaboration First – Leadership built on trust, listening and shared accountability across generations.

• Inclusion with Impact – Equal opportunities for talent from all backgrounds through initiatives like Project 1Gen.

• Legacy through Mentorship – Preparing the next generation of HR leaders to lead with authenticity and purpose.

Collaborative and Inclusive Leadership: Listening, Trusting and Opening Doors for Others

Leadership begins with a simple conviction that people do their best work when trusted to think, decide and own their contributions. I learned early that giving space matters more than giving orders. When teams have room to wrestle with problems and surface their own solutions, growth becomes inevitable. The leader’s role shifts from directing to listening, from prescribing to enabling voices that might otherwise stay silent.

That belief extends naturally to how we build teams. At RCBC, our HR group spans generations and backgrounds and I view that range not as a complexity to manage, but as a strength to harness. Seventy percent of our workforce is under forty. Their perspectives keep us honest and future-facing. Inclusion here means more than checking demographic boxes. It means creating conditions where every person, regardless of origin or pedigree, can contribute fully and rise on merit.

We live that through initiatives like Project 1Gen, which supports first-generation college graduates whose parents drove jeepneys, buses or fished coastal waters. These young professionals are mentored by our most senior leaders, including our former President and CEO. Watching them flourish confirms what I have always believed about potential. Talent does not announce itself through institutional credentials. It emerges when opportunity meets preparation, when systems open rather than gate-keep, when leadership commits not to sameness but to possibility.

Inclusion is not policy. It is the daily work of building trust, widening doors and believing that everyone deserves a fair beginning.

Evolving HR: From Administration to Transformation

I entered HR when it meant filing paperwork, tracking compliance and managing the mechanics of employment. The work mattered, but it lived at the edges of business strategy. Everything changed at Citibank, where I watched HR move closer to the center. We stopped administering and started shaping. People became the work, not the workload. Culture and direction suddenly belonged to us.

RCBC pushed that transformation further. We transitioned from strategic planning to agile execution, building an HR team that could move as quickly as the business needed. Then the pandemic arrived and compressed timelines we thought immovable. What we projected for two years happened in one. We redesigned processes, deployed digital systems and accelerated transformation plans at a faster pace than initially seemed possible.

Through that intensity, one truth clarified itself. Technology enables change, but people decide whether it takes root. They become either advocates or obstacles. The objective measure of HR is whether we can turn skeptics into believers, whether we can make change feel like progress rather than disruption.

“When teams have room to wrestle with problems and surface their own solutions, growth becomes inevitable. The leader’s role shifts from directing to listening, from prescribing to enabling voices that might otherwise stay silent.”

This conviction shaped our decision to expand the RCBC Leadership Academy into RCBC University, integrating three academies focused on leadership, digital capability and customer experience. Every program connects to business goals because transformation without purpose is just motion. We build capabilities and shift mindsets in parallel, recognizing that both must move in tandem.

When people ask whether AI will displace jobs, I offer a simpler frame. AI replaces those who stop learning. Many roles we fill today did not exist twenty years ago. The same will hold in the future. Our responsibility is to ensure people stay ready, continually upskilling and reskilling for work that has not yet been defined. Preparation matters more than prediction. Adaptability outlasts any single skill. That is the work ahead.

People and Purpose: The Future of HR in Banking

Banking has become a contest of experience rather than a contest of products. Speed, accessibility and personalization now define customer expectations and these expectations shape everything we build internally. At RCBC, we anchor every decision to a simple question about the person we hire, the process we design or the training we deliver. Does this bring us closer to the customer or further away?

That lens transforms how I approach hiring. When we fill a branch manager or teller role, I consider whether this person embodies the experience our customers deserve. Job descriptions matter less than the feeling someone creates when a customer walks through the door. Every hire becomes a validation on the experience we promise.

The Customer Experience Excellence Academy emerged from this thinking, framing customer centricity not as a function but as a shared discipline. We train people across the organization to view their work through the customer’s eyes, aligning processes and mindsets with what people actually need and feel. That focus earned RCBC recognition as the top bank in customer service. Product parity is universal now. Differentiation lives in how customers feel during and after every interaction.

We embedded this initiative through CX Champions, who are positioned throughout the bank, including those without direct customer contact. Our previous President became the first to earn CX certification. I followed, initially uncertain why HR needed this credential. Then clarity arrived. My customers are employees. Internal experience and external experience mirror each other. You cannot deliver one without the other.

Today, HR sits at the center of transformation, driving cultural and digital change from within. Watching leaders recognize our contribution affirms what I have always known. People are not supporting actors in the banking industry’s future. They are the performance itself.

Defining Lessons: Authenticity, Mentorship and Legacy

HR once lived at the margins of strategy, supporting decisions made elsewhere. That positioning shifted during the pandemic when uncertainty forced organizations to look toward us for direction. What we decided became the path forward. That moment revealed both the weight of our responsibility and the trust placed in our judgment.

My most excellent satisfaction lies in watching people discover their capabilities. Learning and development form the bedrock of meaningful growth. When employees build confidence, acquire new skills and step into leadership, the purpose of this work becomes visible. Helping others succeed and sharing knowledge and learning alongside them remain the clearest sources of fulfillment.

To emerging HR leaders, I offer one anchor. Stay authentic. People detect insincerity instantly. This work transcends profession and approaches calling. Our purpose centers on preparing others, mentoring them toward their potential and clearing pathways they might not yet see.

Through the NextGen HR program, I have watched young leaders rise to head HR functions at banks and major organizations. Their success reflects my own in ways compensation never could. Legacy is not what we accomplish personally; it is what we leave behind. It lives in who we prepare to continue after us, in the leaders we shape and the possibilities we help them recognize.