Maria Farah Z.G. Nicolas-Suchianco

Maria Farah Z.G. Nicolas-Suchianco is the president, chairperson and 100% owner of Broadreach Media Holdings, Inc., the ultimate parent company of Nine Media Corporation, which owns and operated the channel CNN Philippines. On Jan. 31, 2024, Nine Media Corporation shut down CNN Philippines and CNNPhilippines.com due to “significant financial losses sustained over the past years.” While its license to use the CNN brand was supposed to expire in December 2024, the shutdown resulted in all content produced by the company using the media brand being taken down.

Maria Farah Z.G. Nicolas-Suchianco concurrently serves as corporate secretary of Nine Media and president of its immediate parent company JRLT-JHI Corp.

She is the majority owner of JRLT-JHI, which used to be majority owned in 2016 by Jose Wingkee, Jr., Ferdinan C. Chua and Candy Co who each have 20% company shares. As of April 2023, she owns 0.25% shares in JRLT-JHI, while the remaining 99.75% is being held by Broadreach Media Holdings, Inc.

Nicolas-Suchianco is a lawyer whose expertise includes corporate organization, mergers, acquisitions and corporate restructuring as the leader of the corporate practice group of Gerodias Suchianco Estrella law firm, which she co-founded in 2006. She and four other fellow lawyers from the law firm form the board of directors of Broadreach Media Holdings, Inc., which was founded in 2015.

Aside from the CNN Philippines-affiliated companies, she holds leadership positions in over 30 companies, such as chairperson of the reclamation and real estate developer Cyber Bay Corporation and corporate secretary of Eagle Cement, whose chairman is Filipino-Chinese business tycoon Ramon S. Ang. She previously served as a member of the board of directors of the Bank of Commerce, an affiliate of Ang’s San Miguel Corporation in 2012 and 2013.

In May 2021, she joined the Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary (PCGA) Executive Squadron, a civilian volunteer support organization for the coast guard, with the rank of “auxiliary commodore.” Her husband, Peter, also a lawyer, is the chief of the Judge Advocate General's Service (JAGS) Reserve for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), a group of lawyers recruited to provide legal service for the military. Peter is also part of the PCGA Executive Squadron as “auxiliary rear admiral” and brigadier general in the AFP Reserve Command.