Lito Villanueva is the Philippines’ award-winning thought leader on digital transformation and inclusive digital finance. He is the Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation and Inclusion Officer of RCBC. Concurrently, he is the Chief Digital Transformation Advisor for the Yuchengo Group of Companies. He led RCBC's digital transformation with game-changing digital innovations such as the award-winning app DiskarTech, the Philippines' first multi-lingual financial inclusion super app in Taglish and Cebuano. He also launched ATM Go, the Philippines’ first community-based handheld ATM device which covers 100% of provinces nationwide, and revamped RCBC Pulz, the all-in-one mobile app, as well the as country’s first physical-digital or phygital blended banking experience in the countryside known as RCBC Moneybela Barangayan Banking.

Under Villanueva’s leadership, RCBC bagged multiple regional and global awards, such as the Philippines’ Best Bank for Digital for four straight years from Asiamoney from 2020 to 2023, a back-to-back win for Best Financial Inclusion App from The Asian Banker, and the YouTube Challenger award for its trailblazing twin digital campaigns generating over 17 million views combined, among others.

He is also the founding chairman of Fintech Alliance.ph, the Philippines' largest organization of startups and unicorns that collectively generates over 90% of digital transaction volume in the country today. He was elected global chairman of the South Africa-based Alliance of Digital Finance Associations from over 30 countries. He was recently named 2023 Digital Leader of the Year by PhilSec Awards, hailed among the 2023 Seamless Asia’s Top 50 Banking and Payments Leaders, Top 100 Fintech Leaders in Asia, Top 100 Filipinos on LinkedIn, Mr. Fintech of the Philippines by BizNews Asia, and Chief Innovation Officer of the Year by The Banker, among his over 80 global and regional accolades. He is also a Trustee of the Philippine Blockchain Council and an Advisory Board member of the AIBP ASEAN Innovation Business Platform. He released various publications, including the award-winning Inclusive Digital Finance Report. He has a regular business column Bytes in the Philippine Star.

Villanueva earned two graduate degrees: a Master of Arts in Public Administration with magna cum laude honors from the University of Santo Tomas, and a Master in National Security Administration from the National Defense College of the Philippines, and finished the Digital Transformation by Design Cambridge Intellect Leadership Programme in 2019 at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.