Virgilio “Gil” Yuzon, UPLI President-elect, has led a multi-faceted life.
He has been a business executive and a self-made entrepreneur, a bemedalled athlete in various sports, a writer and omnivorous reader, and a student of philosophy and spirituality. Over the years he has also served in government in various capacities.
His guiding motto and principle in life is from an ode of the Latin poet, Horace – “Carpe diem” (“Seize the day”). His life model is the well-rounded “Renaissance man”, and his ideal is to be “pro aliis” (“a man for others”).
Gil Yuzon graduated Bachelor of Arts in Economics (Cum Laude) at the Ateneo de Manila University, the Philippines’ premier private educational institution. As a senior business executive, he pursued his graduate studies in Business Economics at the Center for Research and Communication (University of Asia and the Pacific). In the course of his career, he travelled extensively, and gave seminar lectures on marketing communications in Philippine colleges and universities, for private companies, and within his industry.
Gil Yuzon’s active business life spans a period of more than forty years, primarily in marketing communications. After consecutive stints as an executive of a U.S. multinational company (Procter and Gamble Philippines) and the then leading Philippine ad agency (Philippine Advertising Counselors) where he became Senior Vice President, in 1971 he took up the challenge of founding and heading a new company, Hemisphere Advertising. This company which grew rapidly, later went into partnership with a major worldwide marketing communications group, Leo Burnett Inc. Upon his retirement as active Chairman in 2001, Hemisphere-Leo Burnett had become one of the top five companies in its industry and remains so to this day.
Gil Yuzon also served as head of his industry’s major organizations: president of the 4A’s (Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies) in 1984-85, and chairman in 1991; and chairman of the ADBOARD, the industry’s over-all self-regulatory body, in 1991.
He has also headed and guided various socio-civic and foreign cultural organizations, notably: president of the Rotary Club of Pasay; director of Alliance Francaise de Manille; Chairman of Alabang Country Club; and officer/director of various other regional and community groups.
In the field of education, Gil Yuzon has been, and continues to be, a member of the board of trustees of St. Paul University Q.C., a leading educational institution and part of the first private university system in the country.
Gil Yuzon has also served in the Philippine government in various capacities: board governor for Broadcast City (three television networks); senior consultant for the Department of Tourism; more recently, chairman of the government’s official TV station, People’s Television Network (PTV); and at present, director of the National Development Company, the Philippine government’s investment arm.
On the personal side, Gil Yuzon’s passion for sports since his youth has led him to excel in various athletic pursuits. He has been a bemedalled runner, a blackbelt in karate, a martial arts instructor and a practical shooting enthusiast. He has travelled all over the country on his motorcycle with the BMW Motorcycle Club, of which he was also chairman. He has also garnered numerous trophies in tennis and golf, two sports he has continued to play in his later years.
Gil Yuzon’s other passions are reading and writing, especially poetry. He is an avid student of philosophy (cosmology, theology, and ethics in particular), and a seeker in the broad and esoteric spiritual realm.
He has published two books. The first is a volume of poetry entitled “Glimpses of Love, Life, and Beyond,” a compilation of his best work over five decades. The second, more recent one, is a collection of his personal insights, expressed in concise creative form, which are basically renderings of the various aspects and ways in which the perennial philosophical and spiritual traditions view the Deity. The book’s title is “Looking at God 70 Ways, “ in celebration of his seventieth year.
Gil Yuzon is the son of the illustrious Pampango poet and orator, Dr. Amado Yuzon, who was the founder and moving spirit of UPLI. He succeeds his late brother, Benjamin Yuzon, who was president of the organization for many years. Gil’s mother is Fortunata Aquino, of the prominent Aquino family, which counts among its famous members Gil’s first cousin, Ninoy Aquino, contemporary Filipino national hero and martyr for democracy, and Ninoy’s son, President Benigno S. Aquino III, the country’s present chief executive.
Gil lives in Muntinlupa City, Metro Manila, in the Philippines with his partner, Sylvia and their daughter Bianca, who, when she was nine, had already written more than thirty poems of her own. He also has four lovely older daughters: Evangeline, Elaine, Celine and Carminia. He has eleven grandchildren and recently, at seventy-one, became the proud great-grandfather of a beautiful baby girl, courtesy of his eldest grand-daughter.
Gil Yuzon is honored to assume the presidency of UPLI, a prestigious and long-standing international association of respected poets from many countries. Together with its board of directors and with the active and generous support of its general membership, he hopes to infuse new energy and new blood into the organization so that it will continue to achieve its goals for many years to come.
He also looks forward to the added incentive and enjoyment of writing more prolifically in coming years.
