Brief Professional Background

REY ELBO is a book author, HR coach, kaizen consultant, and an award winning management journalist . He writes two newspaper columns in BusinessWorld since 1993 and The Philippine Star (started August 2024). Prior to that, he wrote for The Manila Times from May 2002 to August 2024. He is the first Filipino to win the Prize for Asian Economic Journalism Award by IE University (Instituto de Empresa) of Spain. His consultancy firm – Kairos Management Technologies (est. 1997) specializes in HR and TQM work under the principle that "any quality and productivity program could be done with the active help of problem workers." He is the former Country Director of Kaizen Institute Consulting Group (Philippines) and was head of HR and TQM departments of five major corporations. Since 1993, Rey has received  more than 40 Japan-based international grants and fellowships given by the Asian Productivity Organization, Asian Overseas Technical Scholarship, Japan Productivity Center, Kaizen Institute Consulting group, then Nippon International Cooperation Center, Japan Business Federation, Japan Ministry of Labour and Welfare, Japan Institute for Social and Economic Affairs, Japan Institute of Labour Policy and Training, and Hirayama Consulting Group. Every year, he organizes the Kaizen Study Mission to Toyota City, Nagoya for Filipino executives. He wrote four books – “Problem Workers are Created by Problem Managers” (2019), “Total Quality by Maximization” (2016), “Lessons to Learn before They Kick you Out of Your Job” (2010), and “The Buzzword-Centric Workplace” (2007). He pursued a post-graduate program on Strategic Business Economics from the University of Asia & the Pacific and an M.A. in Japan Studies at De La Salle University – Manila. He is a Fellow in People Management by People Management Association of the Philippines, one of few private professionals with a Career Executive Service Officer eligibility and one of only two Filipino professionals certified as a Toyota Management System specialist by ex-Toyota managers at TMS & TPS Certificate Institution in Nagoya, Japan.