SM chairman Henry Sy Sr has stepped down as chairman of SM Investments Corporation (SM), accepting a new role of chairman emeritus, in recognition of his role as the founder of the company.

The company’s board announced the move as part of a series of key organisational changes it says will support the company’s next phase of growth.

The chairmanship has been taken over by Jose T. Sio, who has been SM’s CFO for 26 years and was highly instrumental in supporting the growth of SM and its subsidiaries.

“He instilled strict financial discipline across all businesses that later helped the company achieve optimal results even as the whole group maintained a sound and stable financial position,” SM said in a statement.

New members of the board have been appointed: Frederic C. DyBuncio as director and Alfredo Pascual as independent director, replacing Ah Doo Lim who has served his full term as an independent director.

DyBuncio spent over 20 years with JP Morgan Chase and its predecessor companies. DyBuncio will also assume the role of president of SM Investments in place of Harley T. Sy who will remain as executive director of the board. DyBuncio joined SM in 2011 as senior VP and eventually as executive VP, handling the company’s portfolio investments.

Pascual just completed a six-year term as president of the University of the Philippines. Prior to that, he worked at the Asian Development Bank for 19 years.

Henry Sy Sr, a multi-awarded entrepreneur and philanthropist, opened the first ShoeMart store in 1958, a business now simply known as SM, and fostered it to become one of the largest holding companies in the Philippines.