Joe Ledesma

PRESIDENT & CEO
ST. LUKE’S MEDICAL CENTER PHILIPPINES

Since April 1981 Joe Ledesma has been a dominant figure in the transformation of St. Luke’s Medical Center from an obsolete, dilapidated and almost bankrupt 150-bed hospital to one of Asia’s best medical institutions. Actually running the hospital first as Hospital Manager in 1981, then as Executive Director in 1986 and now as President & CEO since 1996, Mr. Ledesma has presided over the explosive growth of St. Luke’s to 650 beds, with its own medical school since 1994, and now constructing a second 600-bed state-of-the-art hospital at Bonifacio Global City.

For many years now being the most advanced and the most financially viable medical institution in the Philippines, and better technologically equipped than 95% of hospitals in the United States, St. Luke’s feat is all the more remarkable since this was achieved with no debt or borrowings since Mr. Ledesma joined the then ailing hospital in 1981.

Before moving to St. Luke’s, Mr. Ledesma worked for nine years as a medical representative for pharmaceutical companies Glaxo, Beecham and Bristol Myers, and for three years was CEO of Iloilo Mission Hospital.

He earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering degree at the University of San Agustin, a Certificate in Hospital Administration at the Ateneo de Manila University, and an MBA at the Pamantasan ng Lunsod ng Maynila.

A past president of the Rotary Club of Makati Central, Mr. Ledesma is currently Chairman of the Board of the Philippine Ballet Theater and the Philippine Foundation for Liver Diseases. He is also the President of the Makati Central Heart Foundation, Treasurer of the Philippine Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, and a member of the Board of Governors of the Philippine National Red Cross.

A Past Master in freemasonry and a 33rd Degree Scottish Rite Mason, he is a serious collector of fine wine, Lladro figurines and paintings of budding Filipino artists.