Edilberto C. de Jesús, Professor Emeritus, served as President of the Institute from 2009 to August 2012. Prior to this appointment, he was President of the University of the Cordilleras in Baguio City (2008-2009).
Prof. de Jesús' AIM career began as a member of faculty in 1973. In 1977, he was assigned to the Rural Development Management Program, which led to the establishment of a master’s degree program oriented to the management issues faced by the government sector and nonprofit civil society organizations.
He was chair of the RDMP in 1987, when he was seconded to serve as Deputy Commissioner in the Peace Commission established by President Corazon C. Aquino. He accepted a concurrent appointment as Presidential Adviser on Rural Development in the Aquino Cabinet in 1988. He returned to AIM in 1992 as Associate Dean for Research (1992-1995), leading the team that established the AIM Policy Forum in 1994, and serving as its first Chair.
He left AIM in 1995 to serve as president of Far Eastern University (FEU) in Manila. He joined Fr. Angel de la Rosa. O.P., of the University of Santo Tomas and P.O. Domingo of the University of the East in establishing the University Belt Consortium, which started the move for the replacement of the ROTC with the National Service Training Program. During his term at FEU (1995-2002), he served on the boards of the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities (PACU) and the Coordinating Council for Private Educational Associations. He was elected PACU president in 2002 but gave up the post the same year when he was appointed Secretary of Education. He stepped down at the end of the first Arroyo Administration in 2004 to serve as Secretariat Director (2005-2007) of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) in Bangkok.
Prof. de Jesús completed his Master of Philosophy and Ph.D. in History at Yale University. He took courses in History and Comparative Literature at Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU), and courses in US Diplomatic and East Asian History at the University of Kansas. He graduated cum laude from the B.A. Honors Course in the Humanities of AdMU. AdMU, FEU, and Xavier University Cagayan de Oro have conferred on him a Ph. D. in the Humanities, Honoris Causa. He is on the Board of Phinma and the Editorial Board of the Journal of Asian Business of the University of Michigan. He is a member of the Asia Society's International Council.