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Fiona Lideza Went From Call Center Agent to COO

She started on the phones at 18, earning $300 a month, and became a business executive at 21. Now Chief Operating Officer of STAFFVIRTUAL, she trains the next generation of Filipino sales talent and argues that capability, not age or nationality, should decide who leads.

By BPO AI Editorial Team· Last updated: November 12, 2026

Fiona Lideza, Chief Operating Officer of STAFFVIRTUAL · Photograph: via Fiona Lideza, LinkedIn

In July 2024, Fiona Lideza stood on stage as a speaker at Uzbekistan's Global Business Forum, hosted by the country's government. Afterwards she wrote about where she had started. "As someone who started out my career as a mere call center agent earning $300 a month when I was 18," she wrote on LinkedIn, she was "very excited" to share stories and advice with world leaders "sharing a common goal of creating more jobs and opportunities for budding talents around the world."

Today she is Chief Operating Officer of STAFFVIRTUAL, an American-owned outsourcing company with offices across the Philippines. Her own summary of the company's purpose is short: creating opportunities that transcend borders, "emphasizing capability over nationality."

“Maturity and business savvy do not necessarily equate to tenure.”

Fiona Lideza / LinkedIn, May 2024

18her age when she started as a call center agent
21her age when she became a business executive
$4Min business she closed at 23, according to her CEO
2020the year she became COO of STAFFVIRTUAL

Sources: Fiona Lideza on LinkedIn (2024) and her LinkedIn profile.

The origin

Selling BPO one call at a time

Lideza studied Mass Communication at the University of San Jose-Recoletos in Cebu, according to her LinkedIn profile. She began in business development at 21. "I started my career in Business Development at the age of 21, making cold calls, booking demos, and learning how to sell BPO services one conversation at a time," she wrote in March 2025.

Her profile lists two years as Director of Sales and Marketing at a Cebu outsourcing firm before she joined STAFFVIRTUAL as Sales Director in April 2018. That November, STAFFVIRTUAL's CEO Ike Stranathan wrote a recommendation on her profile. "At 23 she closed 4M USD in business, amazing achievement," he wrote. "Give her the really challenging tasks, the ones that everyone else is struggling with, and she will get them done."

“Skills can be taught and learned, but loyalty and integrity are traits that one needs to prioritize when building a leadership team.”

She became Chief Operating Officer in March 2020. Since then, she writes on her profile, the company has "generated substantial value by streamlining processes and implementing robust social media marketing techniques." The company's leadership page credits her with developing "innovative outsourcing, KPO, and PEO/EOR models."

Fiona Lideza leaning over a laptop to guide two colleagues at a meeting table — Fiona Lideza training new business development associates at STAFFVIRTUAL, March 2025. Photograph: via Fiona Lideza, LinkedIn

Too young, until she wasn't

In May 2024, Lideza shared five lessons from becoming an executive so young. The first came from rejection. She once asked a boss for a promotion and was told she was "too young," she wrote. "I decided to prove him wrong."

"Some people will underestimate your opinion because of your age," she wrote. "But maturity and business savvy do not necessarily equate to tenure. Some people stay in a job for decades and possess very little wisdom."

Paying for value

Another lesson was about cost. "Saving money can often be a costly mistake," she wrote. "By hiring less qualified people to 'reduce costs,' you end up spending more in the long run by getting poor and delayed results." In her view, "value is measured not by the price tag or service fee of something/someone, but rather the impact that it/they make for your business."

“Saving money can often be a costly mistake.”

Fiona Lideza / LinkedIn, May 2024

The measure

Capability over nationality

At the Global Business Forum in 2024, Lideza explained why STAFFVIRTUAL chose Uzbekistan as a new outsourcing location. "There are many reasons why we chose Uzbekistan, including cost savings, talent, infrastructure, and its strategic location," she said, as shared by IT Park Uzbekistan on LinkedIn.

Fiona Lideza speaking into a microphone on stage in front of a large screen — Fiona Lideza speaking at the Global Business Forum in Uzbekistan, July 2024. Photograph: via Fiona Lideza, LinkedIn

Women in tech

She also spoke about who gets to lead. "As a young female business executive in tech, I am very happy to see the industry becoming more inclusive for female talent in the tech space," she wrote. She hopes her journey "will inspire a new generation of empowered young girls to not only explore, but also thrive and flourish in the world of tech and business."

Building the next generation

She still sells, and now she also teaches. "I've sold millions of dollars in BPO deals, and I still do… but now I also get to train and mentor the next generation of BD rockstars here in the Philippines," she wrote in March 2025.

What comes next

Where she says it is going

Lideza sees her own growth as tied to the company's next stage. "I feel like I have already gained the maturity that's required to take my company, STAFFVIRTUAL, to the next level," she wrote. "With our expansions to Uzbekistan and other global markets, I am sure there will be more lessons for me to learn."

She is also sharing those lessons more widely. In 2025 she recorded the first episode of Beyond Virtual, a STAFFVIRTUAL podcast, talking about "leadership, growth, and the lessons I've learned along the way." And in 2026 she began sharing videos on how her experience "as both an employee and employer" shapes the way she leads her team for clients.

The lesson for BPO leaders is a practical one. Judge people by what they can deliver, not by their age or where they sit, and pay for the impact you need rather than the lowest rate.

AI helped draft this article. The BPO AI Editorial Team reviewed and edited it, and checked every fact against its original source.

BPO Leaders is written by executives from BPO companies, in their own words. Our editorial team sends you a topic.Write for bpo leaders

Selling BPO one call at a time

Too young, until she wasn't

Paying for value

Capability over nationality

Where she says it is going

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