How Charmaine Valmonte is steering a century-old firm’s evolution from traditional infrastructure to AI-powered tech enterprise while maintaining security

The transformation of century-old enterprises into digital businesses has become a defining challenge of corporate strategy. In Southeast Asia, where traditional conglomerates maintain significant economic influence, this evolution carries implications for national infrastructure and development. The Aboitiz Group, with 44 business units spanning power generation, banking, food, land, and infrastructure, highlights this shift.

From its beginnings in Philippine agriculture, through shipping and maritime operations, to its current position managing critical infrastructure, Aboitiz has adapted to technological change. Today, the company positions itself as the Philippines’ first “techglomerate” – integrating AI and data science across sectors that range from renewable energy to digital banking.

Securing this transformation falls to Charmaine Valmonte, Chief Information Security Officer at Aboitiz Equity Ventures. “We're using technology to accelerate and enhance innovation through our people,” she explains, describing the company's shift from traditional operations to technology-enabled growth.

Operating at the scale of protecting systems that touch millions of lives across Southeast Asia, Charmaine brings military precision to this corporate mission. “I spent 21 years in the US Army as a signal officer, providing telecommunications, data and voice to our troops wherever we deployed, whether in the middle of the desert, Europe or Asia,” she says. This background in military communications evolved into cybersecurity leadership as technology shifted. “We started in information security around 2001-2004. Back then it wasn't known as cybersecurity.”

The stakes extend beyond corporate strategy. With interests from renewable energy to digital banking, the security of Aboitiz’s systems impacts national infrastructure. The company aims for a 50-50 split between renewable and thermal power capacity by 2030, while its financial services handle critical banking data. This combination of traditional infrastructure and digital transformation creates distinct security challenges, requiring new approaches to system protection.

The stakes of this transformation extend beyond corporate strategy. With interests from renewable energy to digital banking, the security of Aboitiz’s systems impacts national infrastructure. The company aims for a 50-50 split between renewable and thermal power capacity by 2030, while its financial services handle critical banking data. “We drive change for a better world by advancing business and communities,” Charmaine says.

Aboitiz’s significant transformation

Aboitiz’s path from agriculture to technology spans more than a century of Philippine economic development. The company began in farming, moved into shipping and maritime operations, and now operates across 44 business units. Yet its current transformation marks the most significant shift in its operating model.

“We have legacy businesses – power, banking, brick and mortar operations – but we're pivoting to digitisation,” says Charmaine. This pivot manifests in concrete changes across sectors. The banking arm exemplifies this evolution, moving from traditional branches to cloud-enabled digital banking, powered by data science and AI.

The company’s manufacturing operations now stretch across five Southeast Asian markets, while its infrastructure division manages multiple airports. Each sector incorporates technology not as an add-on, but as a fundamental operating principle. This creates what Aboitiz terms the ‘techglomerate premium’ – value generated through cross-sector technology implementation.

“We can develop different products, create synergies between the businesses, and learn from one another using technology and innovation to add more value,” Charmaine highlights. This approach requires significant cultural change. “Our CEO has said that to transform, it has to start with all of us as humans – we are the builders and beneficiaries.”

The transformation extends beyond internal operations. Aboitiz’s data science and AI arm develops models for government, healthcare and financial services. In power generation, the company deploys AI to expand renewable energy operations, targeting equal distribution between renewable and thermal capacity within six years.

The scale of change demands new approaches to infrastructure. “We’re moving away from analogue to digital mills using AI and robotics in our plants,” says Charmaine. “Infrastructure now means understanding how we can utilise new technology in cement production and water supply services.”

This transformation creates distinct technical challenges. The company must maintain security and operations across both legacy systems and new digital infrastructure. “In cloud environments, we understand that it’s easy for the organisation to bring up an instance, take in a serverless application, take in a function as a service,” notes Charmaine. “The old way of doing things when we were system-focused is no longer applicable.”

The results of this transformation appear in practical metrics. In financial services, AI models achieve 86% accuracy in detecting fraudulent accounts. In manufacturing, digital systems enable real-time monitoring across five countries. Each success reinforces the company’s strategy of technology-led growth across sectors.

Changing the security paradigm

As Charmaine explains, the shift from physical infrastructure to cloud operations at Aboitiz necessitated a fundamental change in security strategy. “Previously, we used to think of security in terms of how many systems you have, where you store your data and how you compute,” she says. “But when you flip that story over, you're using data versus systems because at the centre of everything is data points.”

This transition reflects broader changes in enterprise computing. With workloads distributed across cloud platforms, traditional perimeter-based security measures have proven insufficient. Aboitiz operates across multiple cloud service models, making system-centric approaches obsolete. “Being system-centric will not work today,” Charmaine states. “It’s important to understand where your data points are.”

The company’s security team implemented this shift through continuous monitoring of data movement. Their platform tracks data points across the enterprise, identifying patterns and detecting anomalies. When a new cloud system launches or a configuration changes, the monitoring system flags potential security implications immediately.

“If there is a noncompliant configuration in our systems, perhaps in the firewall or cloud environment, we detect it through AI-powered monitoring,” explains Charmaine. “These patterns serve as a base – if there is a deviation, there is a trigger or alert.”

The speed of business transformation creates specific security challenges. Aboitiz likens the process to ‘changing the tyre while the car is moving.’ Security teams must protect new digital initiatives without impeding business growth. This requires constant adaptation of security models.

“The organisation may pivot, align, take on mergers, acquisitions, or centralise, decentralise,” says Charmaine. “There are many pivots that create an evolving computing environment. That becomes your challenge, but it’s also an opportunity because we build around this requirement.”

The data-centric approach provides flexibility during transformation. Rather than securing specific systems, the team focuses on protecting data flows. This allows business units to adopt new technologies while maintaining security standards. The approach proves particularly valuable during mergers and acquisitions, where different technology stacks must integrate securely.

“We need to protect the organisation as we're going down the road,” Charmaine notes. “Both threat actors and your organisation will continue to grow and move. Understanding this reality shapes our security strategy.”

AI as an augmented intelligence partner

At Aboitiz, AI serves as a force multiplier for security operations. “We call it augmented intelligence because at the base of it is a human, but we use AI to do what humans cannot,” says Charmaine.

The company’s implementation of AI in financial fraud detection demonstrates the potential of this strategy. Their system identifies mule accounts – legitimate accounts controlled by criminal networks – with 86% accuracy. “In the financial world, accounts can be taken over by syndicates or used by attackers,” explains Charmaine. “Our AI models allow us to proactively identify money laundering activities.”

Identity management represents another key application of AI at Aboitiz. The system builds baseline patterns of user behaviour, then flags deviations automatically. “If someone connects at three in the morning and that’s not their usual pattern, they get bumped out of the system,” says Charmaine. “They can’t access internal files because they're not connecting during their baseline period.”

This behavioural analysis extends beyond time-based patterns: the AI correlates data across multiple systems, tracking how users interact with data and how information moves through the enterprise. When anomalies appear, the system can trigger automated responses or alert human analysts.

“The collection, analysis and correlation between data streams cannot be done by humans today,” notes Charmaine. “It has to be augmented with deep learning or machine learning capability.”

The company maintains this balance between automation and human oversight through clear delineation of roles. AI handles data correlation, pattern recognition and initial threat detection. Security professionals focus on investigating alerts, developing new detection models and understanding emerging threats.

“We use automation for the menial tasks and AI for the data sets,” Charmaine explains. “This allows our professionals to continue learning new technologies and how to secure emerging systems.”

Building for the future

Aboitiz’s technology transformation relies on strategic partnerships to accelerate implementation. “We look into projects that the organisation will require a year or two from now, not today,” says Charmaine. “You’re trying to learn if your partner allows you to scale and experiment with new ideas.”

The company works with Palo Alto Networks to implement zero-trust network architecture, replacing traditional VPN systems. This partnership provides AI-enabled threat detection capabilities across the enterprise. Human Managed, meanwhile, delivers asset visibility and cyber intelligence platforms – enabling the correlation of security data across monitoring systems.

“These partners are integral to our success,” explains Charmaine. “They provide the technologies we need, the expertise on technologies we want to learn, all with the goal of protecting the organisation and its stakeholders.”

This partnership approach extends to Aboitiz’s infrastructure investments. The company secured contracts to operate three airports, adding to its existing aviation portfolio. In the power sector, investment focuses on renewable energy expansion. “We’re putting significant funding and resources into providing a clean energy portfolio,” says Charmaine. “We want a 50-50 balance between renewable and thermal capacities by 2030.”

Data science and AI applications vary by sector. In power generation, AI optimises renewable energy operations. The financial services division uses AI for fraud detection and risk assessment. Manufacturing facilities implement AI and robotics to modernise production processes.

“We’re using AI across sectors – power, banking, food, infrastructure," notes Charmaine. “The organisation’s next step is to understand how we use technology to advance and enable business growth.”

Aboitiz: Journey to a tech-driven enterprise

The transformation of a century-old conglomerate into a technology-driven enterprise requires methodical execution balanced with willingness to experiment. “The only way to survive is to really transform,” says Charmaine. “You're moving away from analogue systems, implementing AI and robotics, understanding how to utilise new technology across traditional sectors.”

For Aboitiz, this transformation manifests in concrete metrics: 86% accuracy in fraud detection, contracts for three new airports, progress toward 50% renewable energy capacity. Yet the technical implementations remain secondary to cultural change.

“The main goal is to align technology initiatives with organisational objectives,” explains Charmaine. “We need to foster resilience while enabling growth.” This balance between security and innovation shapes the company's approach to digital transformation.

The security team’s military-derived expertise proves relevant to corporate digital defence. “In both contexts, you need to understand your environment, adapt to changing conditions, and protect critical assets,” notes Charmaine. “The technology changes, but the principles remain consistent.”

Aboitiz’s experience demonstrates how traditional enterprises can leverage technology to create new value. The company’s strategy of treating technology as a core capability rather than a support function offers a model for other organisations navigating digital transformation.

“We see technology as a means to advance business and communities,” Charmaine concludes. “The challenge lies in securing that advancement while maintaining the trust of our stakeholders.”

This article was originally published on Technology Magazine on February 10, 2025