Amb. Mario Lopez de Leon, Jr. (Retired)
Biography
Ambassador Mario Lopez De Leon, Jr. was the Philippine Consul General in New York, and covered 9 other northeastern states from 2011 to 2016. Prior to his retirement from Government service in 2017. he was the Assistant Secretary for Financial Management Services and Chief Coordinator for the Foreign Secretary at the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs
He was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in Pretoria, South Africa where he was accredited to 9 other Southern African countries from 2010-2011. He served as Minister and Consul General, in London, United Kingdom, with concurrent status in Ireland and Iceland on 2000 to 2006. He was also posted at the Philippine Mission to the United Nations in New York and the Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco.
Before joining the Foreign Service, he had wide experience in the Philippine corporate world having worked at the Sycip, Gorres, Velayo (SGV) Group, a management consulting and accounting firm, Wyeth-Suaco Labs Inc., a pharmaceutical company, and the Export Processing Zone Authority (forerunner of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority), a government corporation, as Assistant Corporate Planning Manager.
In June 2017, he was conferred the Gawad Mabini Grand Cross Award by the President of the Philippines and received the esteemed Felipe Agoncillo Lifetime Service Award from the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. He was bestowed the President Award by the Society of Foreign Consuls in New York and was honored by New York State Assemblyman Brian Barnwell with the Lifetime Service Award Proclamation for exemplary service to both the international and Philippine-American community.
The San Beda Alumni Association conferred him the Distinguished Bedan Award in Government Service in 2013. In 2016, he was accorded the President Award by the College of Mount Saint Vincent for his outstanding work in people-to-people ties in New York.
Ambassador de Leon is an alumnus of the Ateneo de Manila University (College and High School), with a BA in Social Psychology (Honorable Mention) in 1974, and the San Beda University (Grade School) where he graduated Salutatorian in 1966. He attended the Ateneo School of Business where he pursued his MBA, and finished an Executive Program on Economic Diplomacy at the Asian Institute of Management. A lifetime learner, he was a Senior Auditor at Hunter College’s Roosevelt School of Public Policy and earned Certificates on US Politics and Public Policy from the Kennedy School edX Program of Harvard University.
Before joining PBO USA Inc, he did part-time consultancy work in international and small business planning and development. He also served as Special Adviser on Public Policy of aspiring Filipino-American politicians.
He is married to Eleanor De Leon and has four daughters.