Dr. Aquino has professional expertise in international trade promotions and negotiations, industrial policy, investments and technology development, business strategy and reinvigorating industry and services sectors through digital transformation for regional and global competition.
Holds a Doctorate Degree of Management from IESE Business School, University of Navarre (Spain), Master of Science (Industrial Economics) from University of the Asia and the Pacific, and Bachelor of Economics, University of the Philippines.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT EXPERT
Dr. Aquino is active in consulting for private and public entities and is an Independent Director in several publicly held corporations of the Philippine Stock Exchange. He is a Trustee of the REID Foundation, Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication and the Philippines-Australia Business Council.
He was a long-standing Senior Undersecretary of the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry and a Supervising Governor of the Board of Investments. He managed international trade relations with major foreign countries and led the negotiations at the WTO and in the ASEAN Economic community. He was the lead negotiator in the Philippines-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement, the country’s first bilateral free trade agreement.
He was conferred the Presidential Service Award (Lingkod Bayan) for extraordinary contribution of national impact on public interest, security and patrimony, and was a recipient of the Gawad Mabini Award with the rank of Grand Cross (Dakilang Kamanong) for distinguished service to the country at home and abroad by the President of the Republic of the Philippines.