ANVIL ON TIME WITH FEDEX.

The Anvil Business Club (Association of Young Filipino-Chinese Entrepreneurs) had the great honor of having no less than FedEx Express Managing Director for the Philippines and Indonesia, Mr. Rhicke S. Jennings as its guest-of-honor and speaker in its 6th Business Exchange Forum for the year.

Anvil entrepreneurs know only too well that “Time is money.” The legendary company that Mr. Jennings represents in this part of the region has famously made time its greatest valuable resource. Who would have ever thought that a simple yet innovative concept of routing packages through a central hub which came from an idea in a college term paper would take a fledgling company from the brink of extinction to become a Fortune 500 Goliath with over 45 billion in annual revenue and 300,000 employees worldwide? Certainly, for this global company, it has taken the dictum, “time is money” to its most literal – and most profitable – level.

The two-hour discussion had Anvil members and guests – numbering to more than eighty – riveted to their seats as the FedEx head talked about the beginnings and the constant struggles of the company, its vision of creating a world where goods and information move quickly throughout the entire globe, and its commitment to supporting small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs). He cited the role of young businessmen leading SMEs as a major growth driver in the Philippine economy and expressed great optimism for the Philippines as being one of the most promising global markets with an overall positive economic outlook.

Mr. Rhicke S. Jennings has been leading FedEx Express in the Philippines and Indonesia since August 2008. Prior to this role, Mr. Jennings was also the managing director of Australasia, serving FedEx Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands, from June 2003 to December 2010. He joined FedEx in 1991 and since then has held various positions in a number of countries, including the U.S., Singapore, Japan, Belgium, and Thailand. Under his leadership, FedEx was recognized as the best employer in Thailand in 2001 and, more recently, in New Zealand in 2007.

He concurrently serves as president of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in the Philippines, the oldest and most prestigious foreign chamber in the Philippines and the oldest American chamber outside the United States, having been founded in 1902