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| Newly-appointed Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez, Jr. / Image courtesy of WOO Consultants |
BEIJING, China (UPDATE) - Marketing and advertising executive Ramon Jimenez Jr. has been named by President Benigno Aquino as the new Tourism Secretary.
Jimenez replaces Alberto Lim, whose resignation became effective August 31.
"Mon Jimenez has accepted the position. He's a marketing, advertising guy and tourism I think is primarily a marketing effort because the product is already there, merong enhancing the product that we have in the Philippines and at the end of the day, he will be informing a lot of the citizens of the world that there are such and such sites accessible, it should be visited. It would be something that he will do. He's been studying for… about two weeks," Aquino told reporters at the sidelines of his state visit in China.
Jimenez is currently the senior consultant and joint chief executive officer of WOO (Winning Over Obstacles) Consultants with his wife Annabelle "Abby" Lee-Jimenez.
He helped build JimenezBasic Advertising into the largest creative advertising agency in the country during his stint as joint CEO from 1989 to 2008. His work at the agency has been closely associated with the rise of Philippine brands such as Jollibee, Selecta Ice Cream, Safeguard, San Miguel, Cebu Pacific and Ivory Soap, among others.
Prior to that, he was vice-president and executive creative director at Ace-Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising from 1988 to 1989.
He helped Aquino's election campaign and is a marketing consultant for the Ninoy and Cory Aquino Foundation.
Jimenez studied at the University of the Philippines from elementary school to college. He majored in visual communications at the UP College of Fine Arts.