Nestor Espenilla, Jr.

Nestor Aldave Espenilla Jr. (12 October 1958 – 23 February 2019) was a Filipino banker who served as the fourth governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) from 2017 until his death in 2019. He began working for the BSP in 1981 and was a deputy governor under his predecessor Amando Tetangco Jr. Early life Espenilla was born in Manila to Nestor Espenilla, Sr. and Arminda Aldave-Espenilla, the only son in a family of five. When he was 10 years old, his mother established a small rural bank, the Rural Bank of San Jacinto (Masbate), Inc., which grew and now has several branches in the province and in neighboring Sorsogon Province. The bank was managed by his three sisters. Education Espenilla graduated from the Ateneo de Manila High School in 1977. He then graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Economics (magna cum laude) from the University of the Philippines in 1981. He also earned his Master of Business Administration honors degree from the University of the Philippines in 1982 and obtained his Master of Science degree in Policy Science from the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo, Japan in 1988. Career After graduating from the University of the Philippines in 1981, Espenilla was hired by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas as a debt analyst. Known to his co-workers as "Nesting", Espenilla steadily rose through the ranks, earning his stripes in economic research and international operations, before he was appointed by Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2005 as deputy governor for supervision and examination sector under the administration of his predecessor Amando Tetangco Jr. When Philippine president Benigno S. Aquino III took office in 2010, Tetangco's term would have expired, but Aquino reappointed him and his deputies—including Espenilla—to their positions.