Malou N. Santos

Maria Lourdes "Malou" Navarro Santos (born February 3, 1957) is a Filipino businesswoman and film producer. In 1993, she and her sister Charo Santos-Concio founded Star Cinema, for which she served as managing director from 1995 to 2017. During her tenure, Star Cinema rose from financial uncertainty to achieving high commercial success in the Philippine film industry.

Early life and education Malou Santos was born on February 3, 1957 to Winifredo Santos, a physician, and Nora Navarro-Santos. She has five siblings, including Maria Rosario ("Charo", born 1955).

Santos and her siblings grew up in Calapan, Oriental Mindoro, with her and Charo being fans of radio host Inday Badiday and of actress Nora Aunor by the 1970s.

She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in hotel and restaurant management at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.

On May 8, 1993, Santos and her sister Charo founded Star Cinema Productions, Inc., or simply Star Cinema, with Santos as head of production. Santos served as Star Cinema's managing director from 1995 to December 2017. Santos in 2001 had expressed that the 1995 romantic drama film Sana Maulit Muli was the last film she was "100 percent hands-on" as a producer, and cited it as one of Star Cinema's film productions that "really left a lasting impression on me".

As head of Star Cinema, Santos has been characterized as maintaining a lower profile than her sister Charo, who was among the top management at ABS-CBN. Although the film studio did not often produce profitable films for most of its early years, by fiscal year 1998, most of Star Cinema's output was noted to have turned a profit.

In the 2000s, the films produced by Star Cinema under the management of Santos were among the most commercially successful films produced in the industry, regularly ranking among the top-grossing Filipino films of the year. By the time Santos stepped down as chief operating officer in 2017, Star Cinema films had surpassed on ten occasions the record for the highest-grossing Filipino film of all time: Isusumbong Kita sa Tatay Ko... (1999), Anak (2000), Ang Tanging Ina (2003), Sukob (2006), You Changed My Life (2009), No Other Woman and Praybeyt Benjamin (both 2011), Sisterakas (2012), It Takes a Man and a Woman (2013), and A Second Chance (2015).

In February 2016, Santos was named COO of Star Creatives.

The Philippine Quill Awards 2013 Communication Excellence in Organizations