Career Biography   

Maria Franchette M. Acosta, Filipino, 52, she is the Corporate Secretary, Corporate Governance Group Head, and Chief Legal Officer of Ayala Corporation, effective 12 March 2024. She has served as the Company’s Compliance Officer since 26 April 2024. She is also the Corporate Secretary of Ayala Land, Inc., AREIT, Inc., ACEN Corporation, Globe Telecom, Inc., and Integrated Micro-electronics, Inc. She has been a practising lawyer for 24 years, with 18 years at Villaraza & Angangco Law Firm, where she served as Senior Partner, Co-Managing Partner, and Head of its Corporate and Commercial Department. Ms Acosta was also an Assistant Secretary at the Office of the Chief Presidential Legal Counsel of the Republic of the Philippines from 2001 to 2003.

She is recognised as an expert counsel in leading legal journals and publications such as Chambers Global, Chambers Asia Pacific, and Legal 500, and is consistently listed among Asia Business Law Journal’s top 100 lawyers in 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, graduating Class Valedictorian and Cum Laude. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Economics from the University of the Philippines School of Economics, graduating Magna Cum Laude in 1994.