Elaine leads Vriens & Partners’ Philippines-focused work, providing insights on political dynamics in the Philippines and developing government affairs strategies to advance the market entry, operation, and expansion goals of Vriens & Partners’ clients. She has over 20 years of experience in the field, leading high-level consultations with senior government officials, business leaders, foreign business chambers, and NGOs on a broad range of public policy issues, including those related to internet technology and regulation, e-commerce and fast-moving consumer goods, investment liberalization, public-private partnerships, constitutional change, and governance reform.

Prior to working with Vriens & Partners, Elaine served as Executive Director for the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Absentee Voting, Director for Legislative Affairs to a Senator of the Philippines, and Chief of Staff to a Member of the House of Representatives. She helmed the development of landmark legislation that established an automated voting system in the Philippine elections and has advised principals during Congressional sessions and Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meetings at the Office of the President.

Elaine was also Senior Competition Policy Specialist and Team Leader for trade- and infrastructure-related development projects under the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

Before joining the public sector, Elaine practiced corporate law, specializing on mergers and acquisitions, project finance, and civil litigation in the law offices of SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan.

She earned her undergraduate degree from Ateneo de Manila University and her law degree from the University of the Philippines. Her research on constitutional law has been published in the Philippine Law Journal, and she has been a member of the Philippine Bar since 2002.

Mr. Chikiamco graduated Summa cum Laude in BA Economics from De La Salle University. He also holds an Masters degree in Media Administration from Syracuse University in New York. He writes regularly for Business World on political economy under the opinion column “Introspective.” He is also the founder and president of MRM Studios, a mobile entertainment, digital music and e-commerce company.

Gilberto M. Llanto, Ph.D. (Economics) is a Trustee of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies and Team Leader, Regulatory Reform Support Program for National Development (RESPOND), a project of the University of the Philippines Public Administration Foundation. He was President of the policy think-tank, Philippine Institute for Development Studies in 2013-2018. Before this, he was a Senior Fellow and Vice-President of PIDS, Undersecretary of the National Economic and Development Authority (Ministry of Economic Planning) and Executive Director (rank of Assistant Secretary/Assistant Minister) of the Agricultural Credit Policy Council of the Department of Agriculture. He also served as President of the Philippine Economic Society and was Regional Coordinator of the East Asian Development Network.

He has published numerous studies and papers on banking and finance, microfinance, housing finance, local government finance, infrastructure regulation, regulatory management. His most recent publications include Chapters in three books, namely, Reducing Unnecessary Regulatory Burdens in ASEAN (2018), Innovation Policy in ASEAN (2018) and The Development of Regulatory Management Systems in East Asia (2016) published by the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (Jakarta), and a Chapter in Financial Inclusion, Regulation and Education published by the Asian Development Bank Institute, Tokyo (2017).