2006 Filipinas Magazine Achievement Awards

Corporate Leadership: Maria Luisa Mabilangan Haley
Sponsored by: Wells Fargo

?When Maria Luisa Mabilangan-Haley entered the hallowed halls of the White House on the day of President Bill Clinton’s first inauguration, she couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by the significance of her new position. In the 1920s, her father, Felipe Mabilangan, then a student at Syracuse University, stood before the U.S. Congress to appeal for Philippine independence. Six decades later, his only daughter was appointed Special Assistant to the President of the United States in the Office of Presidential Personnel, in charge of overseeing the appointment of administration officials in the economics, commerce and trade sector. She was the highest-ranking Filipino American in the Clinton White House.

A year later, Clinton nominated Mabilangan-Haley to the Board of the U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank), a post that required Senate approval. In her confirmation hearing, she spoke about her Philippine heritage, the values that define her and how her father, who was Philippine consul general and subsequently ambassador to India, Pakistan, France, Spain and Laos, inspired her to pursue public service. Her testimony easily won her the Senate’s approval and prompted her boss, the president, to write her a personal note saying he “loved” her statements at the hearing and thanked her for “doing such a fine job.”

At Ex-Im Bank, Mabilangan-Haley was in charge of small business at a time when the bank had the reputation of primarily supporting big business. By 1997, three years after she took office, the bank’s small-business portfolio had grown to 81 percent of its total transactions. Such accomplishment didn’t come as a fluke. Mabilangan-Haley had more than two decades of experience in public service, policy development and business, particularly in international trade and export development on the state and federal levels.

She began her career as co-founder (with bosom friend Conchitina Sevilla-Bernardo) of Karilagan Finishing School in Manila, the first such school in Asia. She then moved on to various managerial positions with the Manila Hilton and, after she married lawyer John Haley and moved with him to Little Rock, Arkansas, she joined Fairfield Communities Inc. and established its resort division. A few years later, she joined the administration of then-Governor Bill Clinton as Director for Communications and Marketing for the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission (AIDC). It was this post that earned her valuable experience and skills in international business and export development, among others, and made her a certified Friend of Bill and Hillary, with whom she maintains a close friendship. After two terms with Ex-Im Bank, she returned to the White House as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Presi-dential Personnel until the end of the Clinton administration in 2001.

Today, Mabilangan-Haley is Senior Director of Kissinger McLarty Associates, a hotshot international consultancy headed by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former White House Chief of Staff Thomas F. McLarty III. The firm advises U.S. and international corporations on various aspects of international business. Mabilangan-Haley is in charge of Asia-related projects. In the early days of the Arroyo administration, she was also advisor and consultant.

Not a bad career trajectory for someone who still has to complete her college degree.—Gemma Nemenzo