Mr. Roderick “Ricky” De Castro was the previous Executive Director of TeaM Energy Foundation Inc. (TEFI). In 2004, he joined Team Energy Foundation as the rural electrification program’s Program Manager. He helped implement the Barangay Electrification Assistance for Countryside Development (BEACON) Program in partnership with the Philippine government’s Department of Energy (DoE) and successfully electrified over 300,000 homes in off-grid areas, including the country’s most remote and poorest communities, using power from existing grid lines and solar energy in many cases. This was one of the largest social development projects conducted by a corporate foundation at the time.
He has since gone on to other projects and activities, the most notable of which was the Bridging Leadership Program, a collaboration between Team Energy and the Asian Institute of Management that taught rising leaders in the Bridging Leadership paradigm. As a subject matter expert on community development through sustainable energy and the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility, he has given talks both here and abroad. From 2017 to 2018, Mr. De Castro served as the Chair of the League of Corporate Foundations.