Camille Villar attends IESE business school

MANILA, Philippines – Camille Villar, only daughter of real estate businessman and 2010 presidential aspirant Manuel Villar and 2013 senatorial candidate Cynthia Villar, is attending the world-famous Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Emprese (IESE) Business School in Barcelona, Spain.

The real estate executive and Wowowillie host is taking up classes for a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degree in the highly-esteemed business school in Catalunia.

Camille has started attending the program in February 2013 and is expected to finish in May 2014, according to Cynthia Villar’s spokesperson Nini Rubia in a phone interview.

“She has already started with the MBA program in early February. The program is for a year and a half,” she said.

Asked about the status of her ongoing commitments with Wowowillie, the hit variety noontime show she co-hosts with Willie Revillame aired in TV5, Rubia said she will take a leave from the show and come back during breaks from her studies.

“The contract with Wowowillie is still on. She will just take a leave from the show when she’s in Spain studying, but during school breaks, she will be back to co-host the show,” she said.

Camille graduated from the Ateneo de Manila University with a degree in Business Management and is currently the president and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of her family’s Vista Land’s upscale housing subsidiary, Brittany Corporation.

Her brothers, Vista Land CEO Manuel Paolo and Las Piñas Rep. Mark, are graduates of the Wharton School of Finance from the University of Pennsylvania.

The Villar power couple told Philippine Star they want to give their children the best education to “help ensure that family businesses can last more than 3 generations.”

IESE Business School is considered one of the best business schools in the world, one of Europe’s oldest management education institutions (founded in 1958), and has growing alliances in key areas such as Latin America, China and Eastern Europe.

It is an institution of Opus Dei, a personal prelature of the Catholic Church founded in 1928. Opus Dei promotes the pursuit of “personal holiness through work, family and social life.” There is strong commitment to ethics in business, The Economist said.

Notable Filipino graduates of IESE Business School include former Trade undersecretary Thomas Aquino and Francis Gotianun, current assistant vice president of the Gotianun-led Filinvest Development Corporation (FDC). – Rappler.com