From humble origins, Dr. Andrew L. Tan has become one of the most admired entrepreneurs in the Philipines, a renowned innovator and brand builder.
He serves as Chairman of his listed holding company, Alliance Global Group Inc. (AGI), which concentrates on four main businesses: property development, integrated tourism, food and beverage, and quick-service restaurants.
Dr. Tan built Megaworld Corporation, where he is Chairman and CEO, from a startup enterprise in 1989 to become the Philippines’ #1 residential and office condominiums developer. From a builder of stand-alone condominiums, Dr. Tan pioneered large-scale township development in the late 1990’s under his proven Live-Work-Play-Learn lifestyle formula. Prime examples of Megaworld’s successful urban township projects are the Eastwood City Cyberpark (the Philippines’ first information technology (IT) park), Newport City (the country’s first cybertourism zone), and the bustling McKinley Hill.
It is Dr. Tan’s involvement in high-profile, big-ticket tourism ventures that seek to put the Philippines on the regional and global radars of tourists that make the founding of the ALT Center for Tourism auspicious. As Chairman of Travellers International Hotel Group Inc., Dr. Tan is at the helm of Resorts World Manila, the country’s first integrated tourism estate.
Considered the “new kid on the block” by the “old boys” in the 1990s, Dr. Tan not only withstood the havoc wrought by the Asian financial crisis of 1998 (which caused many real estate developers irreparable corporate damage), but also emerged as one of the Philippines’ wealthiest individuals.
Owing to this successful streak, Dr. Tan and his companies have reaped numerous awards. He received for AGI the No. 1 Most Admired ASEAN Enterprise Award at the 2008 Asean Business Awards in Bangkok, Thailand. Megaworld was the recipient of the 2011 Southeast Asia’s Institutional Corporate Award for having the “Strongest Adherence to Corporate Governance.” Dr. Andrew Tan is also a recipient of the Order of Lakandula, rank of Bayani — one of the highest awards accorded to any individual by the Republic of the Philippines.
His alma mater, University of the East, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1974, conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Humanities, Honoris Causa, citing his outstanding achievements in business and social responsibility. The university also noted Megaworld Foundation, which he established, for its initiatives, including supporting over 400 outstanding but underprivileged scholars in 21 universities.
With its perpetual endowment from the Megaworld Foundation, the AIM Dr. Andrew L. Tan Center for Tourism is expected to become a catalyst that will spur the continued development of tourism enterprises not just in the Philippines, but also within the greater Asian region.