Andrés Roxas Soriano Sr. (born Andrés Soriano y Roxas; February 8, 1898 – December 30, 1964) was a

Spanish Filipino Spanish Filipino or Hispanic Filipino ( Spanish: Español Filipino, Hispano Filipino, Tagalog: Kastílang Pilipino, Cebuano: Katsílà) are people of Spanish and Filipino heritage. The term may also include Filipino mestizos of Spanish ances ...

industrialist. Described by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' in 1964 as "one of the most dominant business personalities in the western Pacific area," he was best known for expanding the original San Miguel Brewery evolving into

San Miguel Corporation San Miguel Corporation (), abbreviated as SMC, is a Philippine multinational conglomerate with headquarters in Mandaluyong, Metro Manila. The company is one of the largest and most diversified conglomerates in the Philippines. Originally fo ...

. He also established philanthropies and encouraged good employee relations by sharing profits with his more than 16,000 employees by establishing a

pension plan A pension (; ) is a fund into which amounts are paid regularly during an individual's working career, and from which periodic payments are made to support the person's retirement from work. A pension may be either a "Defined benefit pension pla ...

that paid retired employees 25% of their salary, with guaranteed sick leaves and medical benefits. He was the founder of

Philippine Airlines Philippine Airlines (PAL) is the flag carrier of the Philippines. Headquartered at the Philippine National Bank, PNB Financial Center in Pasay, the airline was founded in 1941 and is the oldest operating commercial airline in Asia. Philippine ...

, Asia's first air carrier. In 1935, during

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...

era, Soriano established Commonwealth Insurance Company, a non-life insurance company.

Family

Soriano was born on February 8, 1898, in

San Miguel, Manila San Miguel () is a primarily middle-class residential area of the City of Manila and is one of the city's sixteen traditional districts. Background Much of San Miguel is located on a riverine island, separated by the mainland by the Estero d ...

, Philippines. His father, Don Eduardo Soriano Sanz, was a Spanish engineer who migrated to Philippines in the late 19th century. His mother, Doña Margarita Roxas de Ayala, was the daughter of Pedro Pablo Roxas de Castro, and the granddaughter of Antonio de Ayala and Doña Margarita Roxas, progenitors of the prominent Roxas de Ayala and Zóbel de Ayala clans. Soriano was a second cousin of siblings, Col. Jacobo Zóbel (father of Enrique J. Zobel), Alfonso Zóbel de Ayala (father of Jaime Zobel de Ayala), Mercedes Zóbel de McMicking and the artist Fernando Zóbel. Soriano had three siblings, including sisters, María del Carmen and Margarita. Soriano was married to María del Carmen Montemar in 1924. The couple had two sons, José María Soriano Montemar (born on February 6, 1925) and Andrés Soriano Jr.

Career

San Miguel Corporation

In 1920, the 22-year-old Soriano joined the original San Miguel Brewery as an accountant. In six months, he became acting manager. By 1924, he was its general manager, and in 1931, at the age of 33 he was elected as its president. During his incumbency, the San Miguel expanded beyond brewery and began to bottle

Royal Tru Royal Tru (often referred to simply as Royal) is a carbonation, carbonated fruit-flavored soft drink brand owned by The Coca-Cola Company that is exclusive to the Philippines. The brand was introduced in 1922 by the original San Miguel Corpora ...

-Orange and

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

, manufacture Magnolia Ice Cream and dairy products, carbonic acid, dry ice and Fleischmann's Yeast. During his presidency, Soriano was known for being authoritative and paternalistic in managing the company. His employees described his leadership as known for having "his word was law", and that includes deciding the "flavor of the month" in Magnolia Ice Cream, one of the company's products. He was also actively involved in rebuilding San Miguel after the war and its further expansion with the acquisition of the Balintawak Beer Brewery in Polo, Bulacan.

A. Soriano Corporation (ANSCOR)

In the 1930s, Soriano established A. Soriano Corporation (ANSCOR) as a holding company for his investments outside of San Miguel. Initially, ANSCOR concentrated on natural resources and basic industries, investing in Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corporation,

Phelps Dodge Phelps Dodge Corporation was an American mining company founded in 1834 as an import-export firm by Anson Greene Phelps and his two sons-in-law William Earle Dodge, Sr. and Daniel James. The latter two ran Phelps, James & Co., the part of the ...

Philippines and Atlas Fertilizer Corporation. ANSCOR also went into insurance;

gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining. Historically, mining gold from Alluvium, alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. The expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface has led to mor ...

(Antamok Mining, which together with the companies of John Hausserman and Jan Hendrik Marsman, made the Philippines second only to California as the top gold producer of the world); oil exploration (Philippine Oil Development Company, Inc.); airline (

);

copper mining Copper extraction is the multi-stage process of obtaining copper from list of copper ores, its ores. The conversion of copper ores consists of a series of physical, chemical, and electrochemical processes. Methods have evolved and vary with coun ...

(Atlas Consolidated); copper wire manufacture (

Philippines);

fertilizer A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from liming materials or other non-nutrient soil amendments. Man ...

from pyrite (Atlas Fertilizer); logging and

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

(Bislig Bay Lumber); paper manufacture (Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines (PICOP)); fluorescent lamps and

incandescent light bulb An incandescent light bulb, also known as an incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe, is an electric light that produces illumination by Joule heating a #Filament, filament until it incandescence, glows. The filament is enclosed in a ...

s (Philippine Electrical Manufacturing Company (PEMCO)); jute bags (Industrial Textiles Manufacturing Company of the Philippines, Inc. (ITEMCOP)); steel drums ( Rheem Philippines); newspapers (''The Philippines Herald'') and broadcasting ( DZTV Channel 13). Atlas Consolidated grew to be the largest copper mine of its time in the Far East and one of the ten largest copper mines in the world.

Citizenship

He was a Spanish citizen and leader of the Philippine Falange during the late 1930s until he applied for Filipino citizenship. After becoming a Filipino citizen, Soriano served as secretary of finance, agriculture and commerce during the wartime cabinet of the Quezon administration. Soriano also served with

USAFFE United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) ( Filipino: ''Hukbong Katihan ng Estados Unidos sa Malayong Silangan''; Spanish: ''Fuerzas del Ejército de los Estados Unidos en el Lejano Oriente'') was a military formation of the United St ...

and later as a

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

on General Douglas MacArthur's staff in the

Southwest Pacific Theater The South West Pacific theatre, during World War II, was a major theatre of the war between the Allies and the Axis. It included the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies (except for Sumatra), Borneo, Australia, its mandate Territory of New Guin ...

. He was granted American citizenship for his wartime services and remained an American citizen until his death.

Death

Soriano died on December 30, 1964, at

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is a teaching hospital located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the original and largest clinical education and research facility of Harvard Medical School/Harvar ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, Massachusetts.

References

External links

A. Soriano Corporation

The Andres Soriano Foundation

40 Richest Filipinos – Moneysense.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soriano, Andres Falangists 20th-century Spanish businesspeople Filipino people of Spanish descent People from San Miguel, Manila Secretaries of finance of the Philippines Secretaries of agriculture of the Philippines Secretaries of trade and industry of the Philippines 1898 births 1964 deaths Deaths from pancreatic cancer in Massachusetts San Miguel Corporation people Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation people Ateneo de Manila University alumni People educated at Stonyhurst College Quezon administration cabinet members Filipino company founders 20th-century Filipino businesspeople