Джон Л. Гоконгвей-младший: Путь филиппинского предпринимателя

Filipino businessman

John Robinson Lim Gokongwei Jr. (; 11 August 1926 – 9 November 2019) was a Filipino banker, businessman, investor, and philanthropist. His conglomerate company JG Summit Holdings, Inc., had an extensive panoply of business and investment holdings across the Filipino economy, including shipping, telecommunications, retail, financial services, petrochemicals, real estate, utilities, aviation, food, beverages, and livestock farming.

Gokongwei was born in China to John Gokongwei Sr. and Juanita Márquez Lim. His father was a scion of a wealthy Cebu based family with ancestral ties to China's Southern Fujian province. His great grandfather (1859–1921; ), a young peddler from China, was Hispanized as Pedro Singson Gotiaoco  and became one of the Philippines' most prominent Chinese Filipinos. Gokongwei attended the basic education department of University of San Carlos for primary school (graduating valedictorian) and high school. The family fortune was lost after the death of his father in 1939 when Gokongwei was 13 years old and World War II (1939–1945) was just broke out. During these difficult years, he had to make ends meet by initially supporting his family by peddling items along the streets of Cebu from his bicycle. From the years 1943 to 1945, or between the ages of 17 and 19, he became a merchant trader using a wooden boat, taking his goods to Dalahican, Lucena by sea and then to Manila by truck.

After World War II, he started his own shipping company called Amasia Trading, which imported flour, onions, fruits, used clothing, old newspapers, and magazines from the United States into the Philippines. In the early 1950s, along with his brothers and sisters who returned from China, he started to import cigarettes and whiskey too. By 1957, seeing that trading would always generate profit low margins San Miguel Corporation was a big customer of theirs. In 1961, he established Consolidated Food Corporation (later known as CFC Corporation, which later merged with Universal Robina Corporation), which launched its instant coffee brand Blend 45. In 1977, Gokongwei earned his Master of Business Administration from De La Salle University. A decade later, he attended a 14 week advanced management program at Harvard. He also owned Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc. and Robinsons Land Corporation. The Gokongwei family controls over $20 billion of combined market capitalization for all the companies they own. In February 2008, Forbes Asia magazine's first Heroes of Philanthropy list included four Filipinos – Gokongwei, Jaime Zobel de Ayala, Ramón del Rosario Jr. and Oscar López. The list was composed of four philanthropists each from 13 selected countries and territories in Asia.

On 29 August 2007, at the Ateneo de Manila University, Gokongwei's biography, John L. Gokongwei Jr.: The Path of Entrepreneurship, by the university's Dr. Marites A. Khanser, was launched, and it narrated the "riches to rags to riches" story of the tai pan. Gokongwei stated that entrepreneurship is a way out of poverty. Khanser's book also enumerated the Nine Rules of business success that Gokongwei followed since he was still a young businessman. In 2002 Gokongwei donated P200 million to the undergraduate school of management. He also gave donations to University of San Carlos, Xavier School, De La Salle University, Sacred Heart School – Ateneo de Cebu and Immaculate Conception Academy (ICA).

Gokongwei married Elizabeth Yu in 1958 and had six children (one son and five daughters) – Lisa, Robina, Lance, Faith, Hope and Marcia. All his children play an active role in the Gokongwei group. His eldest daughter, Robina, heads the operations of Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc. (she owns Robinsons Malls), as the company's COO since 2002. His only son, Lance, currently leads the group as president and CEO of JG Summit. He was a second cousin once removed of Andrew Gotianun Sr., the founder of Filinvest Development Corporation. Gokongwei's great grandfather was a half brother of Gotianun's grandfather. He is also second cousins with the Gaisano family, with Doña Modesta Singson Gaisano being his grandaunt (his grandfather's sister) which he used to call in Hokkien , under his great grandfather, Don Pedro Singson Gotiaoco

Gokongwei died in Manila on 9 November 2019, at the age of 93. Exactly one week after his death, his widow Elizabeth Yu Gokongwei died at the age of 85.