Maria Fe Perez Agudo’s story is one of true female empowerment. As she was about to step into the leadership role for Hyundai in the Philippines in 2001, one of the top male executives in Hyundai headquarters in Korea asked her, “What do you know about cars?” Her retort: “What do you know about the Philippine market?”
The rest is history, or rather, her story. Agudo eventually went on to lead Hyundai in the Philippines to a peak number 3 position among all car manufacturers from 2012 to 2014, and again from 2016 to 2018.
Agudo has been a distinguished personality in the business community. She was awarded “Outstanding” in the 2014 Asia Pacific Enterprise Awards (APEA), cited among the 2013 Women Icons of Entrepreneurship (Go Negosyo) and 2011 Ernst and Young Women Entrepreneur of the Year-Philippines.
Being constantly on her toes has kept Agudo thriving. “It keeps me young and inspired to prove the staying power of women in this industry. I am a natural-born entrepreneur, and so it is always a thrill to discover new ventures that will excite the market.”
She views challenges as opportunities to become a better leader and entrepreneur. “Obviously, we are now living a different set of dynamics in the auto industry. Regardless of gender, we must respond to the long-term post-pandemic challenges as well as the rapid shift to vehicles that run on alternative energy sources. My basic convictions haven’t changed: One’s caliber as a leader goes beyond gender. The challenge is to be quick in gathering real-time customer data, to take a deep dive in interpreting the shift of customer behavior from conventional to electric vehicles, and to be more agile and a step ahead in providing customers new mobility. I would rather focus on what we can do to delight our stakeholders, business partners, and customers as their preferences and purchasing habits evolve.”
A full academic scholar of St. Scholastica’s College of Manila with a Bachelor of Science in Commerce, major in Accounting, Fe—which in chemistry is the symbol for iron, the element of strength, and in Spanish means “faith (in God’s purpose)”—was what her parents wished of their daughter even from a young age. Agudo once told me that through hard study, and what she would attribute as good brain genetics, she and many of her siblings were able to get scholarships from various schools, with all of them becoming successful in their own fields.
Agudo’s message to young women who have just joined the auto industry: “There is room for everyone! We are no longer in a traditional ‘man’s world’ that requires physical heavy-lifting jobs. We now live in an automated world, where what matters most are talent, skills, patience, creativity, and the drive to succeed. Culture biases still exist even if we have taken great strides to break them. A 2021 report states that women overall account for about 50 percent of the world’s workforce but only 27 percent hold management and leadership posts. This means that stakeholders in government, business, and education can still find ways to encourage diversity in the workforce and so offer women more opportunities to hold leadership positions in their chosen careers.”
Ma. Fe Perez Agudo is President and CEO, Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors (AVID); President and CEO, Changan Motor Philippines Inc and President and CEO, Hariphil Asia Resources Inc
