Maria Franchette Acosta

Franchette is the Corporate Secretary of the ACEN. She is also the corporate governance group head and chief legal officer of Ayala Corporation.

She has been a practicing lawyer for 24 years, with 18 years in the Villaraza & Angangco Law Firm where she was a Senior Partner, Co-Managing Partner and Head of its Corporate and Commercial Department. Ms. Acosta was an Assistant Secretary at the Office of the Chief Presidential Legal Counsel of the Republic of the Philippines where she served from 2001 to 2003. She is recognized as an expert counsel in leading legal journals and publications such as Chambers Global, Chambers Asia Pacific and Legal 500. She consistently among Asia Business Law Journal’s top 100 lawyers in the Philippines.

Franchette graduated from New York University with a Master of Laws in 2003. She ranked 3rd in the Philippine Bar Examination and earned her Bachelor of Laws from the University of the Philippines College of Law in 1998 where she graduated Class Valedictorian and Cum Laude. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Economics from the University of the Philippines School of Economics in 1994 where she graduated Magna Cum Laude.