Our Board of Directors

Laurence Rogero is the President of Metro Pacific Water. His expertise is in project finance, foreign and domestic investment, acquisitions, public-private partnerships structuring, energy and water infrastructure and public utilities.

Lau started his career as a project finance lawyer with international and Philippine law firms, advising foreign and local project sponsors, lenders, and project contractors. He eventually took on a number of executive and operational management roles with multinational companies, including acting as general counsel, strategic planning and head of acquisitions, focusing on evaluating, planning and executing special projects, and representing investors in the management and boards of investee companies. He has also done work for the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank relating to the privatization of the electricity generation and transmission sectors. Lau has worked on projects in the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Lau has a Bachelor of Science in Business Economics degree (magna cum laude) from the UP School of Economics. He also completed his Bachelor of Laws degree (Academic Excellence Medal) from the UP College of Law. He also has a Master of Laws degree (With Distinction) from Georgetown University, where he was in attendance as a Fulbright Scholar. Lau also earned Executive MBA units from the Asian Institute of Management and De La Salle University Graduate School of Business.

Mikkel is the Chief Operating Officer & Director for Corporate Development of Metro Pacific Water. After spending about three years in the non-profit sector and a year in the restaurant industry, he ventured into finance as an investment banker for Asian Alliance Investment Corp. in which he closed equity, mezzanine, and debt financing deals in the nickel mining and property development industries. He began working for the Metro Pacific Group in 2012, assisting in corporate development in the agriculture, logistics, telecommunications, railways, water, and renewable energy industries.

Mikkel is a CFA® Charterholder and holds a bachelor’s degree in Management Economics from Ateneo de Manila University. Mikkel has received certificates of completion for the Infrastructure in a Market Economy Program at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government, and for the Mergers & Acquisitions Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Julius has over 30 years of experience in the water industry, starting out in 1987 with the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), the government-owned water utility that managed the Metro Manila system. In 1997, he joined the senior management team of the Lopez-owned Maynilad, which won the west concession during the privatization of the water utility. He began working for the Metro Pacific Group when Maynilad was re-privatized by MPIC in 2007.

He is currently the Vice President for Engineering and Technology at Metro Pacific Water, where he leads the team of engineers & consultants who assess water and wastewater projects, and explore innovative technologies in the water industry.

Julius concurrently sits on the board of Metro Pacific Water, Metro Iloilo Bulk Water Supply Corp. (MIB), Cagayan de Oro Bulk Water Inc. (COBI), and Watergy Business Solutions Inc.(WBSI). He also sits on the board of the startup FlexStrap Industries, Inc.

During his time with Maynilad, Mr. Iglesia was also the Chief Operations Officer of Philhydro Inc. from 2012 to 2013, a water company with operations in Bicol, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija and Nueva Viscaya, in the Phils. He was also the Chairman of the Board for the Common Purpose Facility ( CPF) of Maynilad and Manila Water from 2011 to 2012 and served as a director from 2007 to 2011.

Julius is a licensed civil engineer and has a Master of Engineering in Structural Design (All units completed) and PhD Units in Environmental Studies. He completed his advanced training in hydraulic modelling and analysis for water system and wastewater conveyance systems in New York, USA and in Paris, France.

Erie is the Vice President for Strategy at Metro Pacific Water. His expertise is in project planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance, and project management of water and wastewater projects.

Erie has over 42 years of experience in the water industry, starting in the public sector as Cadet Engineer at the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) in 1975. He then served in various technical and managerial capacities in LWUA, and was the General Manager of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District from 1990 to 1992. In 1992, he moved on to the private sector as Managing Director of Carl Bro International A/S, a Danish engineering consulting firm. In 1996, he joined the French water firm, Compagnie Generale des Eaux (now Veolia Water) as Managing Director where he worked in the Philippines and the Asia Pacific Region until the end of 2011. From 2012 to 2015, he was a special advisor to the President/CEO and to the Management Committee of the Manila Water Company Inc. He joined Metro Pacific Water in November 2015.

Erie is a licensed Civil Engineer and Sanitary Engineer. He earned his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering and B.Sc. in Environmental and Sanitary Engineering from the Mapúa Institute of Technology in 1975 and 1976 respectively. He later earned his Post-graduate Diploma in Hydrological Engineering (M.Sc.) from the International Institute for Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering (IHE) in Delft, The Netherlands in 1981.

Engr. RODRIGO O. YABUT is the Senior AVP for Operations of Metro Pacific Water, and concurrently serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Cagayan Bulk Water, Inc. (COBI). He has over thirty seven (37) years of working experience in the water sector particularly in the operation and management of water supply system, non- revenue- water reduction and control, and technical audit and regulation of water concessions.

He started as a cadet engineer at the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System in 1981 where he graduated top of his class. He rose from the ranks and became Division Manager in 1994 until the privatization of MWSS in August 1997. He also held several managerial positions at Maynilad Water Services, Inc. prior to his retirement in 2010. He became an executive of the Maynilad in 2002 and was promoted to the rank of Sr. Asst. Vice President in 2007, until his retirement in October 2010. He was a consultant of Test Consultancy, Incorporated (TCI) from February –December 2015. He was the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Laguna Water District Aquatech Resources Corporation (LARC) from January 2016- February 2017.

Mr. Yabut’s vast expertise and key competencies include water supply system operation and management, technical audit and regulations of water concession, water production and distribution, flow and pressure measurements, non- revenue- water management hydraulic analyses, water audit, meter testing, etc. From 2007 to 2010, he was involved in different capacities in the conceptualization, planning, and implementation of major water supply projects worth several billions of pesos. These includes construction, rehabilitation, upgrading, expansion of booster and deepwell pumping stations, reservoirs, laying of transmission and primary pipelines, valves, and upgrading of the telemetry system.

He is a registered Civil Engineer and has a Master’s Degree in Management with a thesis on Non-Revenue- Water (NRW).

Laida is the Assistant Vice President for Finance and Admin at Metro Pacific Water. She is also the Treasurer/Chief Finance Officer in a number of Metro Pacific Water’s subsidiaries.

Before joining Metro Pacific Water in 2017, she gained close to three years of external financial audit and reporting experience in SGV & Co. While in SGV, she was also a member of the Capital Markets Group, which supported clients raising funds through local public offerings and cross border capital market transactions. She joined the Regional Compliance team of Johnson & Johnson in 2013, where she drove compliance programs in businesses across Asia-Pacific. She played a key role in minimizing risks through assessments and persistent monitoring of mitigating controls, and enabling continuous improvement by applying best practices. Laida began her career in the water sector when she joined Manila Water in 2014, gaining further experience in internal audit, business development, and financial planning.

Laida earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Accountancy (magna cum laude) from the UP Virata School of Business. She placed third in the Certified Public Accountant Licensure Exam in October 2010, and ranked first when she completed her Masters in Finance degree from the UP Virata School of Business.