Maria Franchette M. Acosta is the Corporate Secretary, Corporate Governance Group Head , and Chief Legal Officer of Ayala Corporation effective March 12, 2024. She has served as the Company’s Compliance Officer since April 26, 2024. She is also the Corporate Secretary of Ayala Land, Inc., AREIT, Inc., ACEN CORPORATION, Globe Telecom, Inc., I ntegrated Micro -electronics, Inc. and Mynt, Inc.
She has been a practicing lawyer, with 18 years in Villaraza & Angangco Law Firm where she was a Senior Partner, Co -Managing Partner and Head of its Corporate and Commercial Department. Atty. Acosta was also an Assistant Secretary at the Office of the Chief Presidential Legal Counsel of the Republic of the Philippines where she worked from 2001 to 2003. She has been recognized as an expert counsel in leading legal journals and publications s uch as Chambers Global, Chambers Asia Pacific and Legal 500. For several consecutive years she was named among Asia Business Law Journal’s top 100 lawyers of the Philippines.
Atty. Acosta graduated from New York University with a Master of Laws in 2003, and ranked 3rd in the Philippine Bar Examination. She earned her Bachelor of Laws from the University of the Philippines College of Law in 1998 where she graduated Class Valedictorian and Cum Laude. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Economics from the University of the Philippines School of Economics in 1994 where she graduated Magna Cum Laude.