Leaders With a Mindfulness Practice: Supporting Employees Through a Time of Crisis

The John Gokongwei School of Management invites you to a Brown Bag Session on "Leaders With a Mindfulness Practice: Supporting Employees Through a Time of Crisis". Our presenters are Dr Emmanuel G Zara, Jr and Dr Emeral Jay D Ilác, Associate Professor at the Department of Leadership and Strategy.

This will be held on Wednesday, 23 April 2025 from 12:00 - 1:30PM at the Cabochan Room, SOM 307 and online via Zoom.
Please register here: https://bit.ly/jgsombrownbag26mar2025

Brief Description of the Topic:
This study used a qualitative approach known as interpretative phenomenological analysis to thematically analyze the actual lived experiences of four Filipino female leaders with a mindfulness practice. The study reveals that leaders with a mindfulness practice related to their employees during a crisis by focusing on doing better work as a team, building personal relationships with them, and regularly examining themselves as a leader.

About the Speakers:
Emmanuel G Zara, Jr, PhD
Emmanuel has relevant professional experience in line with Human Resources, Business Planning, and Sales and Marketing after spending close to 5 years of corporate experience in a leading semiconductor company and 10 years in a top financial multinational company in the Philippines. Since then, Emmanuel has been in the learning and development space for almost 20 years.

Presently, Emmanuel is the Management Director of a firm that specializes in leadership, strategic planning, coaching and learning and development solutions. As a trainer, Emmanuel delivers high-powered globally accredited Professional Development trainings to various local, SEA, US and European clients. Emmanuel is also a Professor of Practice for the Golden Gate University in San Francisco, California where he teaches Theories of Leadership, Complexity, Strategy, and Change.

Emmanuel’s outstanding educational credentials include a Certificate in Global Leadership from the Thunderbird School of Management in Arizona, a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the Ateneo de Manila Graduate School of Business graduating with Silver Medal for Academic Excellence. He is also a graduate with honors from the University of the Philippines with a degree in Bachelor of Science in Psychology. He also has been awarded certification in Executive and Life Coaching by the American Management Association (AMA) and currently pursuing a Professional Coach Certification (PCC) by the International Coaching Federation (ICF).

In 2022, he also completed his PhD in Leadership and Organizational Development at the Ateneo De Manila University in the Philippines.

Emerald Jay D Ilác, PhD, RPm, CSIOP

Erald is currently an Associate Professor of the Ateneo de Manila University, and was a director of the Ateneo Center for Organization Research and Development. He also was a manager over ten years in various institutions such as KFC Philippines, Gloria Jeans Coffees and Seattle’s Best Coffee, where he managed their respective branches and developed people he supervised. He also worked as marketing officer for Kenny Rogers Roasters, and as a cluster manager for Netopia under the ePLDT Group.

His research focus is on leadership, culture, and psychology, which has been published in various local and international journals and book chapters. He is an editorial board member for Sage’s Leadership and PLOS One, and is a member and peer reviewer for the International Leadership Association and the Psychological Association of the Philippines. He is a licensed psychometrician under the Philippine Regulatory Commission and a Certified Specialist in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the Psychological Association of the Philippines where he sat as a Board Member from 2021 to 2024 and became its External Relations Officer in his last year. A psychology undergraduate from the Ateneo de Manila University, he finished his doctorate degree in Leadership Studies also in the same university.