2011 Game Changer: Benedict ‘Ned’ Salvador

As a boy, Benedict “Ned” Salvador dreamed of being a teacher. Then in his third year of college, he made a fateful choice: to study behavioral sciences.

“After seeing the course curriculum, I said, ‘I want to be a trainer. I want to be a teacher, but not a teacher of kids, a teacher of adults,’ ” recalls Salvador, now 33.

He’s been doing that—and much more—at Integra Business Processing Solutions Inc. Based in Manila, Philippines, Integra provides business-process outsourcing and contact center services. Salvador has led an effort to improve the reputation of not just his company, but also his entire industry, in academic circles.

“When they hear ‘business-process outsourcing,’ it’s not always a good reaction,” says John Robert Sion, a corporate communications specialist at Integra who nominated Salvador for the Game Changers award. “He’s making sure that students, professors and instructors recognize that the BPO industry or the knowledge-process outsourcing industry provides not only a good career development path but also careers where their ability to impact is maximized.”

Salvador’s strategy: provide hands-on experience. To help students become familiar with the company, he and his team talk on campuses about preparing résumés and improving communication skills. They invite students to visit the office to experience the culture and receive training from internal experts.

Outside the office, Salvador teaches college courses on human resources management and marketing. “I’m trying to change their perspective so they start to dream,” he says. “I was once like them. I was not born well off.”

His boldest move may have come in August when he gained approval from the company’s corporate parent to return AIG to Integra’s name. After the U.S. Federal Reserve bailed out American International Group Inc., the New York office instructed its subsidiaries to change names. Until then, Integra had been known as AIG Business Processing Services Inc. Now, it’s the first subsidiary to add AIG back.