Dr. Jaime Aristotle B. Alip is the Founder of the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development Mutually Reinforcing Institutions (CARD MRI), the 2008 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Public Service. Dr. Alip is now the Chairman Emeritus of CARD NGO and continues to chair the board of the major institutions of CARD MRI (CARD Bank, CARD SME Bank, and CMDI). Started in 1986, CARD MRI is now a group of 21 mutually reinforcing institutions whose major focus is poverty eradication in the country. As of December 2018, CARD MRI has a total outreach of more than 6.11 Million poor families with a total outstanding loan of more than Php 24.97 Billion pesos ($ 478.5 Million). Total asset of CARD MRI is more than Php 54.76 Billion pesos ($ 1.049 Billion) with a full-time staff complement of 17,035. Its microinsurance arm, CARD MBA/CPMI, insures more than 23.68 Million individuals.

Dr. Alip served in various key positions in the Philippine Government: Undersecretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (2002-2003); Assistant Secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform (1996-1998); and Deputy Executive Director of the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (1988-1992). As Assistant Secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform, he was given the Secretary’s Award in 1998 for his contribution to the agrarian reform program. Ernst and Young recognized him as the Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2006; Most Outstanding Alumnus of the University of the Philippines Alumni Association in 2007, and the President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam recognized Dr. Alip’s more than 2 decades of work in Vietnam in the field poverty eradication with the Order of Friendship Award.

As an educator, he now serves as the dean of CMDI Tagum campus. He is also an Eminent Fellow of the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP), since 2012 and an Adjunct Professor of CPAF, University of the Philippines in Los Baños (2011-2013). He served in the board of Southeast Asia Interdisciplinary Development Institute (SAIDI), Philippines from 2008 -2014. He served as an adjunct faculty of the Southern New Hampshire University in USA from 2008-2010. Moreover, he was also a Special Fellow of Nihon Fukushi University, Nagoya, Japan. He has been recently appointed as a visiting scholar/fellow of Univeristy of New Hampshire from April 2017 to present.

Dr. Alip is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School, having completed the 3-year Owner/President Management (OPM) Program in 2007 and was given the Excellence Award on Strategy. He obtained his doctorate degree in Organization Development from the Southeast Asia Interdisciplinary Development Institute (SAIDI), Manila, Philippines in 2002. He received his bachelor and master’s degrees in agricultural economics/marketing from the University of the Philippines at Los Baños in 1978 and 1983, respectively. He also attended the Executive Program in Global Management at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, U. S. A. in 1999.