Jacot named 2018 Businesswoman of the Year

Jacot

TUMON, Guam—Mary Grace D. Jacot, president and CEO, SET Pacific Inc., was named the 2018 First Hawaiian Bank and Guam Business Magazine Businesswoman of the Year and presented with the annual award at the Businesswoman of the Year gala on April 28 at the Hyatt Regency Guam.

Jacot was selected from seven nominees in this year’s program, which recognizes businesswomen who have made significant contributions to their industries and have demonstrated a strong commitment to their community. Her photo is featured on the cover of Guam Business Magazine’s May-June issue, which was released at the gala.

Jacot was born in Pangasinan, Philippines and with her family followed her father to Guam in 1981. From 2001 to 2007, Jacot worked in finance and loan management, constantly being recruited for higher positions and movement from Ameriquest Mortgage, then Countrywide Home Loans, then Charter Funding, which later was acquired by IndyMac Bank. In 2007, Jacot joined her husband in the electrical industry, where she soon became president and sole owner of their company after the couple purchased SET in 2010.

Throughout the past eight years, SET received the highest safety awards from the Associated Builders and Contractors Inc.—the Safety Training and Evaluation Process Platinum Award from 2010 to 2014 and Diamond Award from 2015 to 2017—as well as the 2015 Guam Contractors Association Excellence in Construction Award for the $2 million to $10 million electrical category.

Jacot is a member of the Guam Women’s Chamber of Commerce, the Guam Contractors Association, the Guam Society of Professional Engineers, the Guam Chamber of Commerce and its Armed Forces Committee, the Society of Military Engineers and Rovers Football Club. She works with a group at St. Dominic’s Senior Care, which helps with feeding elderly parishioners two to three times a month and with her family and SET staff raises money and volunteers for world and local Junior Golf Tournaments; and supports various other organizations on island.

Jacot holds a 1997 associate’s in science and marketing from Kapiolani Community College and a 2000 bachelor’s in finance from the University of Hawaii.

Proceeds from the gala will fund scholarships for students pursuing business and related degrees at the University of Guam, Guam Community College, and Northern Marianas College.

Jacot joins the previous Businesswoman of the Year award recipients, which are as follows: Ramona L. Jones, CEO, Jones & Guerrero Co. Inc. (2017); Sophia Chu Wigsten, general manager, Hyatt Regency Guam (2016); Joann G. Camacho, director of market development, DFS Guam (2015); Shirley Ann T. Sablan, executive vice president and general manager, Pacifica Insurance Underwriters Inc. (2014); F. Marie Calvo-Monge, chief operating officer and executive producer, Pacific Telestations Inc., which does business as KUAM (2013); Mary P. Rhodes, president, Guam Hotel & Restaurant Association and President, MARQ Consulting Services (2012); Joyce Quinata Crisostomo, executive director, Cars Plus and President, Payless Car Rental (2011); Anna Wang Kao, founder and president, Genghis Khan Furniture Co. (2010); Lorraine S. Okada, president and owner, Managing Consulting Services (2009); Julienne Rose Perez Duenas, physical therapist, owner and clinical director, Sports, Orthopedic and Active Rehabilitation Inc. (2008); Christine Won Pat Baleto, master franchise Guam and store owner, Pacific Froots LLC (2007); and Katherine C. Sgro, executive vice president and chairwoman of the board, Pay-Less Markets Inc. (2006).

For more information or to submit a nomination, contact Meghan Hickey, business editor, Guam Business Magazine at (671) 649-0883 ext. 126 or businesseditor@glimpsesofguam.com, or Barbie Jane Agahan, assistant advertising manager, First Hawaiian Bank at (671) 475-7908 or bagahan@fhb.com. (PR)