American delegation company Athena is investing $5 million to build training sites in the Philippines and is planning to increase its workers in the country in the next two years to 4,500 from 2,500 at present, company officials said.
“Athena hires, trains, and matches top executive assistants also called XPs with the world’s best chief executive officers (CEO) and founders of companies in 17 different countries and 70 different industries around the world,” Kandy White, Athena CEO, said Saturday at the opening of Athena’s first dedicated office in the country, located in Aurora Boulevard, Quezon City.
White said Athena will operate a second site in Cebu by the second quarter.
Victoria Alcachupas, the company’s chief marketing officer, said in an interview Athena plan to open another site in Cavite and one north of Manila but declined to elaborate.
Alcachupas said while all XPs do their jobs remotely, the physical buildings serve for recruitment and training hubs for local talent.
“The Philippines has consistently been our largest source of executive talent, which made Manila the clear choice for our newest hub,” said White.
“With over 2,500 employees currently based here, establishing a facility where we can train, support, and enable them to collaborate in person was the strategic next step. We intend to reach 4,500 in two years,” she added.
White explained that Athena XPs perform various functions beyond virtual assistance, which is a basic service like email and schedule management. These roles are customized to the clients’ needs — from social media promotion to financial reporting.
She said XPs are trained for technology and skills that include artificial intelligence (AI) for simple tasks.
“Around 100 percent of our assistants use AI at least once a week and 50 percent of them use it every day just to make their jobs better. What we do is not your typical virtual assistance,” she added.
