adobo chats with Noel Lorenzana, MediaQuest’s newly-minted President and CEO on his life, career, and things that could have been
Interview Mikhail Lecaros
Sitting by the pool at the Manila Polo Club, Noel Lorenzana is the picture of a man at ease with his surroundings and his place in the world. And why shouldn’t he be? Fit, accomplished and more than equipped to take on any professional challenge head on, it’s not hard to see how he got to where he is today.
But things could have gone quite differently, career-wise, had Lorenzana stuck to his original path, namely, that of a fully-qualified chemical engineer – hardly the line of work one would associate with someone appointed to run the nation’s third largest network.
Lorenzana laughs at the memory. “The reason I took up chemical engineering in college is that I hated chemistry in high school! I wanted to prove a point. It was a difficult time, but very satisfying.”
Whether as a product of his willingness to tackle difficult tasks or a competitive-streak honed from a lifetime of being an avid sportsman, the drive to succeed has guided Lorenzana throughout his career, seeing him scale the corporate ladder to occupy key positions at Unilever, NutriAsia, Smart and now, TV5.
“I’ve always looked for challenges and opportunities to learn,” says Lorenzana of his new post. “In this case, it’s about how to take the media business forward while taking into account the future consumption of media. There a lot of media practitioners who could do it, but maybe the need now is a converged look, with ‘converged’ meaning how to use the different properties of the group.”
Tech-savvy and an avid follower of popular culture (sitcoms Two-and-a-Half-Men and Anger Management are current favorites), Lorenzana says that he plans to draw on his experience as, in his own words, a “client” of the particular services MediaQuest offers. But he stresses that there is no “silver bullet” to improving TV5, and that his task will involve equal amounts of working with what he is given and, of course, serendipity.
So just how does a chemical engineering graduate come to run a media company?
“I spent the first 20 years of my career in Unilever, straight out of university. When I was applying for my first job, the HR director told me I was perfect for marketing. I asked him what the trade offs would be, and he said that, while a technical career would be more ‘durable’, with marketing, I could do a very quick rise (but burn out quickly). So I took the more exciting route, working in various departments, and I guess I’ve been successful, thus far.”
For the full story, grab a copy of adobo magazine’s June/July 2013 issue.
