Jonas Gaffud bids Aces and Queens goodbye

FILE: “Finally being crowned by Pia Wurtzbach as Miss Universe. Very proud of Pia now an Icon.” (Photo: @jonasempire.ph/Instagram)

Talent manager Jonas Gaffud, dubbed as “The Queen Maker” surprised Philippine pageant fans after announcing his departure from beauty camp Aces and Queens last Monday, April 1.

Known to his trainees as “Mama J,” Jonas has been in the industry for the past 18 years and founded Aces and Queens. In a Facebook post, he explains, “When my friends and I founded Aces and Queens, our intention was to prepare young women to be queens for national and international pageants. Our group got bigger, as the number of girls we train or who asked to be trained by us, also grew. And we have trained them with passion, love and dedication without asking anything in return. Though we have permanent jobs, our only reward was to see them grow as persons, and bring honor to our country. We never knew it would be this big.”

Jonas and his team are responsible for the success of international pageant winners like Miss World 2013 Megan Young, Miss International 2016 Kylie Versoza, and Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach.

In his post, he continues to explain that he is leaving to focus on other endeavors, “As much as I would love to continue training girls as head of Aces and Queens, I believe it is time for me to leave the group to pursue other endeavors. As such, I will focus on developing and sustaining advocacies which are close to our hearts: education of children, and raising funds for their causes, LGBTQIA rights & awareness, tourism for the Philippines and women empowerment,” concluding, “Let’s support our queens. We are Team Philippines after all. Mabuhay and maraming salamat.”

Other than Aces and Queens, Jonas is the head of Empire PH, which is a lifestyle, beauty, and wellness channel that features workshops on personality development, dance, acting, and pageantry. He is also the owner of Mercator Artist and Model Management.