Mr Jose D Rene Almendras was President of the Manila Water Company prior to accepting his post as Secretary of the Department of Energy. He started his corporate career at Citytrust Banking Corporation, later moving to Citibank as Account Management Group Head in the Visayas in 1985. After his stint with Citibank, he was invited by the Aboitiz Group to be the Company's Treasurer for both the Aboitiz Company and Aboitiz Equity Ventures. He was eventually promoted as President of the group owned City Savings Bank. Under his leadership, this bank became one of the biggest in Cebu. In 2001, Rene joined the Ayala Group through Ayala Land Inc. He was appointed as CEO of Cebu Holdings Inc. and Cebu Property Ventures and Development Corporation. Later on, he assumed the role of Business Group Head for VISMIN ( Ayala Land ) and concurrently Operations Transformation Group Head of Ayala Land.

Landing his first CEO job as president of a bank at age 37, his reputation is known to some financial analysts and brokers for his success in driving the value of the companies he lead. As President of City Savings Bank he made it one of the most profitable in its category in the whole country. As President of Cebu Holdings, share prices and net profits increased significantly in the five years that he led the company.

In 2007, Rene was appointed to Manila Water Company as its Business Group Head. In his role, he transformed the customer service of Manila Water resulting to record-breaking customer satisfaction rating (as conducted by an independent survey group). Two years later, he assumed the role of President of Manila Water. He was instrumental in setting the stage for the expansion and growth of the company . He also led the company to garner recognition both here and abroad. To name a few, the company had been consistently awarded as one of the Best Managed Companies in Asia, Best in Corporate Governance, one of the Greenest Companies in the Philippines, and most recently, hailed as the world's Most Efficient Water Company. To date, Manila Water continues to expand its service in the East Zone and is now present in Vietnam, India, Australia, Laguna and Boracay.

Mr Rene is now an acknowledged international resource person on Sustainable Development and leadership as evidenced by the long list of international speaking engagements in Asia, Europe, and the US. Known to be a staunch sustainability advocate and a leader in doing business at the base of the pyramid, as well as the triple bottom line of financial profits, social impact, and environmental protection, he is much more known and respected internationally than locally for these advocacies.

As a Leader, Rene believes in servant leadership. He leads to serve others. As passionate advocate of transformation through people development, he personally champions the development programme of the people in the company. And as everyone in his team knows, at the core of all his actions and decisions as a leader is his value of "integrity above all else". To him, serving truthfully and honestly is the glue that binds people together, the anchor that allows companies to waver economic downturns and the foundation of genuine transformation.