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Another American-educated elite has returned home to take over a massive family empire. Mariana Zobel de Ayala, 36, just became managing director of the Philippines oldest conglomerate after spending years on Wall Street. Her father called her back from her cushy job at JP Morgan to help run the 191-year-old Ayala Corporation.
This is exactly what we need to see more of in America. Young people with good educations should come home and build up their communities instead of chasing money in big cities. Mariana could have stayed in New York making bank, but she chose duty over dollars.
The Zobel de Ayala family has been running businesses for eight generations. That kind of long-term thinking built America too, before Wall Street and tech bros started running everything. Family businesses care about more than just the next quarterly earnings report.
Mariana worked her way up the hard way over 12 years. She did not just walk into the top job because of her last name. She learned the business from the ground up in real estate, banking, and retail operations.
Now she faces the tough job of fixing aging shopping malls and office buildings. Sound familiar? American malls are dying too because online shopping and remote work changed everything. At least someone is trying to solve real problems instead of creating new apps.
The Philippines benefits when their best and brightest come home instead of staying in America forever. We should be encouraging the same thing here. Too many small towns lose their smartest kids to coastal cities and never get them back.
Traditional family businesses built stable communities for generations. They provided good jobs and invested locally instead of moving factories overseas for cheap labor. That model still works when families take responsibility seriously.
Mariana represents old-fashioned values in a modern world. She chose family duty over personal gain, and now she gets to help her country grow. More young Americans should follow that example instead of chasing fame and fortune in Silicon Valley.
