FIRST KAPAMPANGAN and third woman president of the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP), her 2020-2021 incumbency could not have come at a worse time – Covid-19 at its dreariest, deadliest worst – immediately earning her the designation “pandemic president.”
Unfazed, Elizabeth Carlos
Timbol took the challenge squarely, her being born and raised in countryside
banking and her personal advocacies rising to the fore in the 3-point agenda of
her presidency: strengthening programs for rural banks, capacity building and
digitalization, and women empowerment. Their application specially targeted at
farmers and the MSMEs.
The Asia Leaders Awards’ Woman
of the Year for Countryside Development in 2021 makes a fitting testament to
her leadership of the RBAP and an affirmation of her continuing contribution to
the socio-economic uplift of rural communities, having been bestowed the same
recognition in 2019.
Past the presidency, Ms.
Timbol assumed the chairmanship of the Rural Bankers Research and Development
Foundation. Inc where continued her agenda of service, establishing and
enabling RBAP’s new generation of bankers aged 40 and below to solve the
concerns of succession planning of rural banks in the country.
A most significant
achievement was her successful organization and delivery of impactful webinars
to rural banks, providing them with valuable knowledge and insights. Equally
noteworthy was her leading the crafting of generic manuals that served as
helpful guideposts in the rural bankers’ day-to-day operations.
In 2023, the Italian
Chamber of Commerce Leadership Award’s Woman in Business of the Year was
bestowed upon Ms. Timbol.
For 2024, Ms. Timbol
serves as a trustee of RBRDFI and committee chair for training, and RBAP director
and committee chair for compliance and internal audit, upholding continuous
professional education and training for all rural bankers.
Fittingly, the poster girl
of rural banking – with her 33 years in the business principally contributing to
GRBank consistently ranking Number 1 family-owned bank in the country.
GRBank has long grown from the typical
deposit-withdraw-loan-on-the-side system of rural banking into diversified
financial products and services previously the exclusives of commercial banks,
like dollar deposits, and even lending up to P350 million to single borrowers
owing to its high securities-based lending.
A core service of the bank is the promotion of
financial literacy among its clientele, especially those in the agriculture
sector to help them “save wisely or invest their hard-earned money and capacitate
them to keep everyone well-fed.”
Beyond banking, Ms. Timbol
served as president of the Metro Angeles Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc.
where, again, she proved her leadership excellence: The premier business
organization hailed as Most Outstanding Chamber in the Philippines (Region
Category) for two consecutive years, 2022 and 2023. With no less than President
Ferdinand E. Marcos Jr. himself handing the recognition to her during
the 48th Philippine Business Conference and Expo at The Manila
Hotel, on Oct. 20,
2022.
MACCII was cited primarily for its advocacies
for countryside development, principally in mentoring start-ups hewing to its
advocacy: It’s SIMPLE -- Sustainable, Inclusive, Mentorship, Partnership,
Linkages – to be MACCII.
A countryside mindset, Ms. Timbol says she has
kept ever since, be it in banking or in every business organization she has
found association with. “I support empowering the countryside and develop
inclusiveness in matters of development.”
“We can make Pampanga as an alternative place
to do business outside of Metro Manila other than Batangas and Laguna. More
investors mean greater income, more success, and more opportunities will
open and continue for entrepreneurs resulting to higher employment,” she says
with bullish confidence.
As we prepare to close this article, some
breaking news – Ms. Timbol has been hailed “Asia’s Influential and
Inspirational Female Business Innovator” at the Asia’s Influential Leader
Awards held Feb. 16 at the Grand Ballroom, Okada Manila.
The business icon shines on. The Editor
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