Boardroom Tea: What makes Martha Sazon, Martha?

They say you have achieved popularity once the public knows you for your initials or your first name. 

BBM. JAZA. RSA. MVP. Robina. TSC. 

Martha may soon be getting there. 

With Mynt’s IPO gaining the “pambansa” moniker through sheer size and public attention, Martha’s name has reached even those who do not usually follow business news. 

On Tuesday, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself rang the bell at the Philippine Stock Exchange along with Martha, signaling the first time the GCASH ticker joined the rest of the country’s listed companies on the exchange.  

More than 140,000 first-time investors, majority of whom have been users of the app for at least two years, were probably watching. They will take part in the growth of the company now as investors, rather than just consumers. And Martha now works for them. 

So, what makes Martha, Martha? 

I can very easily list all of the awards she has been getting: Fortune’s 100 Most Powerful Women in Asia from 2024-2026, Women of the Year Asia Leaders Awards in 2023 and many others. But that’s cheating. Awards don’t make the person. The person makes the person. 

So in the spirit of the season, let’s say this the way Martha would. Martha is famous for having no filters and says things the way she sees them. One of her previous colleagues told me this has always been her biggest disarming trait. 

“What you see is what you get. So you know exactly where you stand with her,” says Francis del Val, who worked with her during her GlaxoSmithKline days. From accounts of those who work with her, she gives off this “prangka tita vibes, sometimes cute, sometimes scary, often effective.” 

As with every outspoken CEO, I imagine that this means she is able to do things that only Martha can, as well as butt heads with regulators and other CEOs whether in the same industry or outside of it. 

She arrests presentations mid-stream by showing back-of-the-envelope calculations that are way better than the ones that took weeks to complete. She asks tough questions and demands answers, even from those who don’t work for her. She expects results yesterday, as we say. 

“Martha always knows what she wants and doesn’t accept no for an answer. She is incredibly motivated, never accepts the status quo and has the tremendous energy to make things happen. And she has never backed down from a challenge. On the contrary, the adrenaline rush provides her the power supply to move mountains,” del Val told me. 

Last Tuesday, Martha said in her speech that listing is not the finish line. As a listed company, the mission has gotten so much bigger. It will go beyond reducing the unbanked. It will go beyond monetizing the wallet through transfers. It will even go beyond growing earnings, achieving sustainability, or paying dividends. 

What will make GCash the pambansang stock is for the superapp to fulfill its mission of finance for all — a place where success is not measured by account opening or e-wallets churning money, but measured against what account holders do with that small amount of money. 

Humans are not wired to save and invest, and that is why we are where we are. Capital markets are thin; we are at the mercy of global funds. How can GCash change that? Can a superapp facilitate a one-peso daily savings or investment from 100 million Filipinos?  That is the real innovation.  

From what I hear, Martha’s working on it. Let’s see what happens.