The Office of the President (OP) is located at the 6th floor of the Tower Building of José Rizal University.
It is mainly responsible for overseeing all the activities of the University. Most importantly, it safeguards the quality of education by engaging all of JRU’s stakeholders and supporting initiatives aimed to sustain optimum performance in board examinations, attain the highest levels of accreditation, and push the boundaries of innovation in the use of technology as a tool for instruction.
JRU’s President
Dr. Vicente Katigbak Fabella is the 6th President of José Rizal University.
Fabella has had a career dedicated to education, a field he describes as reflecting every person’s desire to “further human welfare.” Prior to his presidency in January 2003, he was Executive Vice President of JRU, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Graduate School. He is often described as the youngest university president in the Philippines.
As president of JRU, he is responsible in leading the University toward its mission of “developing its students to become useful and responsible citizens through the effective transfer of relevant knowledge and desirable values.” His goal is to transform JRU into a regionally-recognized university by concentrating on the “student learning experience,” the core of his November 2003 investiture address. In doing this, Fabella relies on a focused strategic process and the intellectual and physical assets of JRU.
Under Fabella’s leadership, JRU has grown academically and financially. Through his work of introducing new degrees and improvements in the current services that play off the University’s strengths in affordable quality and business education, the University has enjoyed a string of academic successes, with University Status in 2000, Autonomous Status in 2010 and Level IV accreditation in 2012.
His career in education can be described as a sustained humanitarian effort. He has focused on improving Philippine private education, with his work at JRU and with national educational associations as Board Member of PBEd (Philippine Business for Education), COCOPEA (Coordinating Council of Private Education Association), PERAA (Private Education Retirement Annuity Association), and PACU (Philippine Association of Colleges and University).
Fabella is viewed by his colleagues and friends see him as a well-rounded academician, an intellectual whose two feet are solidly anchored on the ground. He is circumspect and uses few words to make big points. He makes it a point to reach out in his friendly way, to all stakeholders and publics of the University. He meets the attributes of the modern-day University CEO, responsive and proactive to the needs, wants and expectations of the global community. For him CEO means, Customers, Employees, and Owners. He has a disarming manner that could be described as politely and tenaciously focused, especially in his advocacy of affordable quality education and academic excellence.
Fabella has hurdled academic milestones one after another, namely, (1) Kindergarten at José Rizal College, (2) elementary and secondary education at La Salle Greenhills, (3) a post-secondary year at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, followed by (4) an A. B. in Economics and Development Studies from Brown University Rhode Island in 1987; (5) a Master in Public Administration, with concentration in advanced public policy analysis, from Columbia Schools of International and Public Affairs in New York in 1991; (6) a Master in Business Administration with concentration in business policy, finance, and economics, from Columbia Business School in New York in 1992; and finally (7) a Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration, specializing in business strategy, and in particular, industrial economics and game theory, from the University of the Philippines in Diliman in 1999. He is married to Maria Margarita Naval, a pediatrician. The couple is blessed with four children, Denise, Isabelle, Sam and Therese Roxanne.