John Gokongwei
| John Gokongwei, Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Native name | 吳奕輝 |
| Born |
Go Ek-hui August 11, 1926 Amoy, Republic of China |
| Residence | Manila, Philippines |
| Nationality | Filipino |
| Education | De La Salle University |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | Owner of Robinsons Malls Chairman of JG Summit Holdings |
| Net worth | $5 billion |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Yu |
| Children | 6 |
| Parent(s) |
John Gokongwei, Sr. (Go Kong Wei) Juanita Marquez Lim |
John Robinson Lim Gokongwei, Jr. (traditional Chinese: 吳奕輝; simplified Chinese: 吴奕辉; pinyin: Wú Yìhuī; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Gô͘ E̍k-hui; born Go Ek-hui on August 11, 1926) is a Filipino business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He has holdings in telecommunications, financial services, petrochemicals, power generation, aviation and livestock farming. As of 2015, Gokongwei is the second richest entrepreneur in the Philippines, with a net worth of over $5 billion, ranking behind Henry Sy.
John Gokongwei, Jr. was born in China to a Filipino-Chinese father who was a scion of a wealthy Cebu-based family, with ancestral ties to China's Fujian province. His patrilineal great-grandfather was Don Pedro Lee Gotiaoco, a wealthy Chinese immigrant tycoon who was once the largest taxpayer in Cebu. The family fortune was lost when his affluent father died. John was 13 years old at this time. He initially supported his family by peddling items along the streets of Cebu from his bicycle. From the age of 17 to 19, he traded using a wooden boat, taking items to Lucena by sea, and then to Manila by truck.
After the Second World War, he started his own company called Amasia, which imported textile remnants, fruit, old newspapers, magazines, and used clothing from the US. During this time, he courted a young girl, Elizabeth, who would later become his wife. In the early 1950s, along with his brothers and sisters who returned from China, he started to import cigarettes and whiskey too.
In 1957, seeing that trading would always have low margins and would always be dependent on government policies, the family concern entered the era of manufacturing. With a loan of 500 thousand pesos from Albino Sycip, then chairman of China Bank, and DK Chiong, he started a corn milling plant producing glucose and corn starch. The company was named Universal Corn Products and later expanded into Universal Robina Corporation.San Miguel Corporation was a big customer of theirs.
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