Lance Gokongwei now chairman of PhilWeb, aims at AI rollout for the business

Philippine entrepreneur Lance Gokongwei (pictured) has been appointed chairman of PhilWeb Corp, a provider of business-to-business (B2B) services for the Philippine online gaming sector, following the resignation of Crisanto Alcid as chairman and chief executive. Mr Alcid, who resigned from the two roles on Thursday, continues to serve as a PhilWeb director. The company said the CEO position is currently vacant. In mid-July, PhilWeb said Mr Gokongwei had been elected to its board. The news came a few weeks after it emerged he had made a PHP2.03 billion (US$32.6 million currently) personal investment in the company. A Thursday press release issued by the firm quoted Mr Gokongwei as saying: “This transition marks a critical inflection point for our capitalisation and operational scale. “Our objective is clear: to deploy institutional-grade, AI [artificial intelligence]-powered infrastructure that establishes a new operational standard for security and compliance across the regulated digital ecosystem.” PhilWeb currently provides online gaming platforms for a number of land-based casino operators in the Philippines. As of June 30, the firm also had four game content providers integrated to the Philippines’ e-games network with “at least 1,600” games approved by the country’s regulator, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor). The information was given in PhilWeb’s second-quarter earnings report, issued in mid-August. Brian Ng, PhilWeb president, was quoted saying in Thursday’s press release: “Having Lance Gokongwei step into the chairman role provides the institutional governance required for our next phase of scale. “His strategic oversight ensures that our AI infrastructure rollout – specifically engineered to serve the complex backend needs of premium commercial tourism complexes and multinational platform providers – is executed with absolute capital market discipline.” The release said immediate operational goals covered: “Real-time operational monitoring; algorithmic risk management; regulatory compliance automation; anti-fraud detection; and data-driven customer life cycle optimisation.” According to PhilWeb, Mr Gokongwei will be chairman “for the remainder of the current term” previously being served by Mr Alcid. It didn’t specify the length of the term. In a letter filed on Friday with the Philippine Stock Exchange, PhilWeb stated: “The position of chief executive officer became vacant upon Mr Alcid’s relinquishment of such position.” “No appointment to the position of chief executive officer was made pursuant to the foregoing resolutions,” of the board,” it added. Mr Alcid had become chairman in December last year, taking over from Gregorio Araneta. In October, PhilWeb had announced that Gregorio Araneta Inc had agreed to sell its entire stake in PhilWeb for a total consideration of PHP1.80 billion. Mr Gokongwei is president and chief executive of JG Summit Holdings Inc, one of the Philippines’ largest conglomerates, with interests including Robinsons Land Corp, Universal Robina Corp and airline Cebu Pacific. NUSTAR Resort & Casino, in Cebu in the Philippines, is owned and operated by Universal Hotels and Resorts Inc, a privately-held company controlled by the Gokongwei family. NUSTAR Online is one of the online gaming providers with which PhilWeb is working. In the PhilWeb setup, Mr Gokongwei himself is acting in a “personal capacity”, according to previous disclosures.