A PROFESSOR of the University of the Philippines (UP) has been appointed as deputy director for administration of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA).
The appointment of Professor Joselito Florendo, outgoing vice president for planning and finance of the UP System, took effect on December 1.
Not completely new to SEARCA, Florendo served as its financial adviser on accounting, audit, investment, and finance from 2003 to 2007.
SEARCA is a treaty organization hosted by the Philippine government on the campus of UP Los Baños. It is mandated to strengthen institutional capacities toward agricultural and rural development in Southeast Asia through its programs on graduate education and institutional development, research and development, and knowledge management.
Florendo is an associate professor at the UP Diliman Cesar EA Virata School of Business.
Having served as vice president for planning and finance of the UP System from May 2014 to November 2019, Florendo brings with him extensive experience in administration.
He had served as assistant vice president for planning and finance, UP System; director of UP System Budget Office; chief accountant of the UP System Accounting Office; assistant executive director of the UP FoundationInc.; executive director of the UP Provident Fund; Director of the UPD Business Concessions Office; and chairman of the Department of Accounting and Finance, UPD Virata School of Business.
Florendo has also done work in financial management for the Philippine government at the Department of Budget and Management and Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Education, and Commission on Higher Education.
He has conducted training programs for Citigroup, United Coconut Planters Bank, the Chartered Business Administrator Program of the Philippines and for overseas Filipino workers in Dubai.
He has authored chapters in the Philippine Corporate Finance (2009 Textbook Edition) and a case study on the arts and culture management in the Philippines in 2003.
A distinguished educator, Florendo was awarded the Most Outstanding Finance Educator of the Philippines by Deloitte-Finex in 2015. He is also the recipient of the Philippine Civil Service Dangal ng Bayan Award conferred by President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016.
In April, Florendo was named runner-up of the PwC Philippines' 2019 National Accounting Teacher Award on its inaugural year of honoring "the accounting teacher who is a distinguished model of excellence and who has helped uplift the standards of the teaching profession."
A certified public accountant with a bachelor of science degree in business administration and accountancy from UP Diliman, Florendo also holds an International Masters in Small and Medium Enterprises from the Asia-Europe Institute of the University of Malaya, Malaysia. He was also a research fellow of the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.