Dr Arcelo and son Ronald

‘I am seventy.’ She says it as though it were a court verdict and a declaration of victory at the same time. Mrs Arcelo, who is arguably the Philippines’ most prominent maritime educator, celebrated her birthday on 28th May – the same day former New York City mayor Rudolph W Giuliani and African-American R&B/soul icon Gladys Knight both turned 65.

Although no celebrity herself, Mrs Arcelo was not less deserving of a toast when the watershed date arrived. For 37 years she had been at the helm of the John B Lacson Foundation system (John B, for short), painstakingly transforming the once-troubled nautical school founded by her late ship captain-father into the country’s first and only maritime university. And now she was bowing out – ‘retired but not retarded,’ she quipped.

John B’s new top honcho is Ronald Raymond Lacson Sebastian, Mrs Arcelo’s only son from a previous marriage. In terms of academic credentials, the 33-year-old Sebastian comes to the job armed to the teeth. He is a Ph.D graduate of John B (maritime education, 2009) and holds two masteral degrees – maritime management (John B, 2006) and business administration (Ateneo de Manila University Professional Schools in Makati City, 1999). In addition, he took up a special leadership course at Stanford University (2008) and another on computer programming at San Francisco State University (1995-1996)

Though not outgoing like his mother, indeed a bit reserved, Mr Sebastian is actually an amiable chap. He also has the poise and confidence that one associates with the ilustrado, the educated elite of Spanish colonial times. This young man has an air of authority and class about him that sets him apart from many of those we’ve met ( scruffy old sea dogs or hard-nosed entrepreneurial types) who run maritime schools or training centres.

Can he deliver? We have little doubt that he can. It helps that Mrs Arcelo had put all systems in place before she voluntarily retired. The young Sebastian has the requisite management skills and business outlook to continue what has been started. More important, he has a deep appreciation of IT, without which no university could flourish in the 21st century.

Under Mr Sebastian’s watch, John B is busy establishing a data centre equipped with mainframe computers running on Windows and Linux. It is also developing a long-distance learning programme with support from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). It has even tapped Smart Communications to provide a specialised service that enables students to access academic information (e.g., class schedules and grades) from their mobile phones.

As John B enters a new era, its fledgling CEO faces two major challenges. One is to try to keep the quality standards that Mrs Arcelo had worked long and hard to institute constantly above any commercial agenda, important as these may be to the organisation’s bottom-line. Another is to be his own man, to innovate without worrying that innovation would run contrary to what his mother was accustomed to doing or thinking.

The truth is, Mrs Arcelo still casts a long shadow over John B in spite of her insistence that it’s the son who now runs the show. Her influence is a positive thing. On the other hand, change is inevitable and the old must often give way to the new. ~Barista Uno