Filipino Engineers
If we are going to look back in world history, you will see that many of the notable billionaire businessmen around the world are also engineers.
Examples of notable people are Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Jimmy Carter, Herbert Hoover, and the list goes on. On a modern note, according to Business Insider in an article, 20 percent of the Fortune 500 CEO’s have a degree in engineering.
Therefore, we can say that engineering can be a good educational background for a career in business either as an entrepreneur or a professional executive.
The Philippines also has their fair share of engineers who used their passion and drive to make it to the top.
Here are 8 Filipino Engineers who became business tycoons.
1. Geronimo Z. Velasco
Source: Department of Energy Philippines Website
Ronnie Velasco was a mechanical engineer who won the 1977 Management Man of the Year award, as well as the first president of Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC).
He was the chairman of Republic Glass Holdings Corp, which used to own the pioneer factory that supplied 70 percent of Philippine glass requirements for home and building construction since the year 1956.
The firm then sold its shares in Republic-Asahi Glass Corp. to its Japanese partner Asahi Glass in the year 2001.
He also served as energy minister from the years-1978 to 1986, wherein he implemented the strategic goal of reducing the dependence of the Philippines on imported oil.
2. Diosdado “Dado” Banatao
Source: Techniasia
Dubbed as the Bill Gates of the Philippines. This Filipino is a high-tech entrepreneur and innovator in Silicon Valley California.
He is an electrical engineering cum laude graduate from the Mapua Institute of Technology, a prestigious engineering school in the Philippines.
He also has a master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science in Stanford University.
He is credited for having developed the first 10-Mbit Ethernet CMOS with silicon coupler data-link control and transceiver chip, the first system logic chip set for IBM, as well as the local bus concept and the first Windows Graphics accelerator chip for personal computers.
He is co-founded Mostron, Chips and Technologies and S3 graphics.
3. Lucio C. Tan
Source: ABS CBN
He is a science and history buff who studied chemical engineering at Far Eastern University in the Philippines, as a working student.
He is a self made tycoon, who continues to read nonstop until now. He is ranked as the tenth richest billionaire in the Philippines in 2020 by Forbes magazine, with a net worth of $1.7 Billion US dollars.
Tan was born in Amoy (now Xiamen), Fujian, China. His parents moved to the Cebu in the Philippines when he was a child. He was said to have gone to school on barefoot and first worked as a stevedore who tied cargo with ropes made from abaca.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Far Eastern University in Manila. Forbes states that while in college, Tan “worked as a janitor at a tobacco factory” where he “mopped floors to pay for school.
Lucio Tan is the founder and chairman of the $2 billion (sales) LT group, which has interests in tobacco, aviation (Philippine Airline), beer & spirits, banking, bottled water, non-alcoholic drinks, and property development. In 1982, Tan established Asia Brewery.
Now a subsidiary of LT, the brewery was the only one then to compete with the market leader San Miguel.
4. Tony Tan Caktiong
Source: Primer
Tony Tan Caktiong, the founder of the largest food retail in the Philippines is a BS Chemical Engineering graduate from the University of Santo Tomas.
His 2020 net worth according to Forbes magazine is $1.7 Billion US dollars.
Born January 5, 1953) is a Filipino billionaire businessman. He is the founder and chairman of Jollibee Foods Corporation, and the co-chairman of DoubleDragon Properties.
Tan was born to Chinese immigrant parents from Fujian. He attended high school at Chiang Kai Shek College and graduated from the University of Santo Tomas with a degree in chemical engineering. Tan had initially planned an ice cream parlor when he founded Jollibee, then added dishes such as hamburgers, French fries, and fried chicken.
Tan founded the fast food chain Jollibee in 1978, after having started it as an ice cream parlor in 1975. Expansion and acquisition of Greenwich Pizza Corp. enabled it to enter the pizza-pasta segment. In early 2006, Jollibee Foods Corporation bought out the remaining shares of its partners in Greenwich Pizza Corporation, equivalent to a 20% stake, for P384 million in cash.
As of November 2019, Jollibee operates at over 1300 stores worldwide, 1,130 of which are in the Philippines, its country of origin, and 234 are situated in foreign markets. The number of branches does not include other stores like RedRibbon, Chowking, Greenwich, Manong Pepe’s and Mang Inasal.
5. Francis Chua
Source: WP
Francis C. Chua is an industrial engineering, cum laude graduate from the University of the Philippines.
Chua is a Philippine businessperson who has been at the helm of 14 different companies and presently holds the position of Chairman of Philippine Business Center, Inc., Chairman of DongFeng Automotive, Inc., Chairman & President for Philippine Satellite Corp., Chairman & President at CLMC Group and Chairman of Philippine Silkroad International Chamber of Commerce.
He is also Chairman of Foundation for Crime Prevention, Chairman of International Chamber of Commerce Philippines, Chairman at Green Army Philippines Network Foundation, Inc. and Honorary President at Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce & Ind Inc and on the board of 27 other companies.
In the past Francis C. Chua occupied the position of Chairman for BancAmerica Securities, Inc. (Philippines), Vice Chairman & Treasurer at Mabuhay Investment Corp., President at Chamber of Commerce of The Philippines Foundation, Inc. and President of Chamber of Commerce of The Philippine Islands.
6. Ramon S. Ang
Source: The Filipino Times
Ang is a mechanical engineering graduate from Far Eastern University and is the Vice-Chairman, President and Chief Operating Officer of San Miguel Corporation.
His net worth according to Forbes magazine is $1.4 Billion US dollars.
He is transforming San Miguel Corp. form a beer giant into a more diversified conglomerate that has huge investments in infrastructure, energy, and other fields. Because of his bold and strategic reforms, beer and foods now constitutes only 20 percent of San Miguel’s total business.
He is also Chairman of Cyber Bay Corporation and Eagle Cement Corporation.
7. Henry Lim Bon Liong
Source: VirgieCheng
Lim is a mechanical engineering graduate from the University of the Philippines.
He is a leader in Philippine paper products with Sterling Paper Group.
In the past years, he is being known as a pioneer of hybrid rice technology, with his SL Agritech Corp, he is working to promote Philippine rice self-sufficiency.
8. Bayani Fernando
Source: Philstar
Fernando is a mechanical engineering graduate of Mapua.
He is formerly known as the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman, and the mayor of Marikina, a city in the Philippines.
Before he entered the world of politics, he was the founder of the BF Group of Companies, with construction, real estate, steel, and manufacturing businesses. Fernando built the country’s tallest building, the tallest shopping malls, as well as industrial and residential subdivisions and other facilities.
According to Fernando, engineers like him “are more practical and prefer to focus more on solving problems.”
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Article Sources: Philstar, Business Insider, Millionaireacts, Forbes
