Filipinas Magazine 2005 Achievement Awards Corporate Leadership

Roy Drilon

He may be in the glamor business, but there's nothing glamorous about the enormity of Roy Drilon's area of responsibility at Elizabeth Arden, Inc., one of the leading cosmetics manufacturers in the world. Drilon holds the title of Senior Vice President for Global Logistics. He's in charge of distributing and re-supplying the company's retail outlets in 120 countries and 35,000 doors in the U.S. with fragrance, skin-care and color products. For this gargantuan task, he leads an organization of 300 employees with a budget of $50 million.

Since assuming this post in 2001, Drilon has made waves within the community and in the industry. He streamlined EA's distribution process and centralized it in a world-class distribution facility in Roanoke, Virginia, thereby reducing the company's operating cost by $9 million. He has also spearheaded the improvement of service-level and fill rates to 98% and reduced customer backorders by 25%. To ensure an efficient distribution strategy for the non-US markets, Drilon initiated service agreements with Third pary logistics (3PL) providers in Europe. Asia and North America. For a company whose life depends on the timely and widespread distribution of its products to its users, Drilon's process management abilities are invaluable.

With over 20 years of Global logistics experience behind him, Drilon has established a proven track record in strategic expense and cost reduction that include improving customer service, asset management and business and system processes. For such experience he has been thrice a recipient of awards for distribution excellence from Modern Materials Handling Magazine ….

What sets Drilon apart from most top corporate executives, however, is his "contagious passion" for mentoring his subordinates for management positions. Such generosity of spirit springs from his early upbringing in Dumangas, Iloilo where an extended family helped his mother, a music teacher, raise the Drilon brood of eight after their father died when Roy was not yet five years old.

During his college days at Ateneo de Davao and his post-graduate education at the University of the Philippines, Drilon was constantly pushed by his great-grandmother, his grandmother and his mother to study hard and do well.

It was his rude awakening in the US on the difficulties of being an immigrant that erased all traces of what Drilon himself calls his cockiness and arrogance, and made him recognize how important mentoring is for anyone's success.

Drilon moved to the US in 1982 with his wife Nadina and baby daughter….

From such a low-end job (mail courier at American Express), he rose quickly, helped no small way by the mentoring he got from his supervisor….

As he rose the corporate ladder in American Express, Unilever and Elizabeth Arden, Drilon never failed to look back to where he started and to look around for new talents that he can help hone.