Maria Abby Joy Gozon

Maria Abby Joy Gozon is a Client Relations Executive (CRE) and Business Support Analyst. Within a few years in the organization, she became the youngest member of the Country Leadership Committee. It was during this period that she demonstrated strong leadership capabilities, actively supporting various corporate events, employee engagement activities, notably championing the Stop Hunger – Servathon activities in 2021 and 2022."

Abby, as what she is fondly called, started her career at St. Luke’s Medical Center – Bonifacio Global City, where she initially took up the three-month internship program and eventually worked as a Therapeutic Dietitian in the Food and Nutrition Department. Such role paved the way to a more dynamic and challenging role at Sodexo Philippines.

Turning Point

I was 24 years old when I took up the position of Contract Manager for VRP Medical Center, one of Sodexo’s healthcare clients. For two years, I led the Dietary Department, directly managing twenty diverse individuals and in-patient dining services, cafeteria, and special events / catering services, ensuring excellent in-patient and guest experience.

During my stay at VRP, Sodexo Philippines won the Hard Facilities Management Services, which became my core responsibility as Contract Manager. I managed kitchen operations, building maintenance, overseeing 33 people with diverse personalities and expertise.

I felt that going outside of my comfort zone would be a challenging journey. Thus, after two years with Sodexo, I applied for the Client Relations Executive (CRE) position (my current role) where my main responsibility was to support the organization retain our clients, ensuring we engage with them strategically.

As CRE, Abby works independently from operations, listening to the voice of our clients while remaining neutral and unbiased, ensuring that client’s feedback is relayed to the Operations team objectively. She also ensures the implementation of Sodexo Group’s client retention program that is guided by the Clients for Life philosophy. Her key achievements include the improvement of retention rate from 83.9% in 2019 to 99.6% in 2021, having exceeded the Group’s target of 95%. Such achievement is sustained in FY2022.

With Sodexo’s high client retention rate, we are able to increase our workforce to over 3,000 with enhanced employee engagement rate of 87.2% (Source: Voice Survey 2021).

Apart from the CRE role, Abby also performs as Business Support Analyst, strongly supporting the Management team in various programs including Sodexo’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), proactively raising awareness on women empowerment and sound leadership.

Strengthening employee engagement has been Abby’s additional noteworthy contributions. Without doubt, she has contributed significantly to the company’s mission of providing quality of life to clients, consumers, and employees.

Abby is one of the shortlisted candidates at the 2022 - Women of the Future Awards held in Singapore in November 2022.

Find out more… about our career vacancies: Job Opportunities (sodexo.com)