Kevin Andrew L. Tan: Family, friends, faith & the Filipino
Because tycoon Kevin Tan, CEO of the Alliance Global Group Inc. (AGI), anchors his life and work on very distinct and solid values, his world has become a mega world.
At a Christmas lunch with media recently at the Gordon Ramsay Bar and Grill at Newport World Resorts, Kevin said he was grateful for his family, first and foremost.
“My kids are growing up very quickly. My wife is very patient and very understanding. I’m very thankful that I’m very well. I’m also thankful that my parents are healthy. Family is very important. I’m thankful for that. I’m also very thankful for people like Harold (Geronimo, who is Megaworld’s VP and head of public relations) and our executive management, who share our passion to uplift lives and to help the country. Who every day work very hard and fight for this cause. I can’t begin to tell you how fortunate I feel to be surrounded by people like him.”
Kevin, one of PeopleAsia’s “People of the Year” awardees for 2025, reveals, “A lot of things have changed after 15 years of doing things a certain way. I had to do some big changes. But I took my time. And I’m thankful that it was smooth. I feel that I was guided,” says Kevin.
Kevin has three bracelets on his right wrist: The first he chose himself, the second is a gift from his wife, Michelle, and the third was given to him for protection by a feng shui master he consulted. The latter advised him on the best way to make positive energy flow through the Newport buildings. That, plus prayers before and after he makes important decisions, have energized operations there, he shares.
During our lunch, Kevin, who is also chairman of Newport World Resorts, was still on a high from the previous night’s company Christmas party, which was attended by over 3,000 people, including the scholars that his father AGI and Megaworld founder and patriarch Dr. Andrew L. Tan has supported through the years.
Employees, the scholars who have become employees and current scholars, were requested to light up their phones as the patriarch Andrew Tan was singing.
“We shut off all the lights in the ballroom. We asked our scholars to turn on their phones. I could see a sea of lights, scholars just saying ‘thank you’ to my dad and the company. And it was very touching,” says this father of two.
“We give more than a thousand scholarships a year,” reveals Kevin. “We graduate 1,000 scholars a year and then we hire them back into our ecosystem. We’re now trying to really see how we can really help shape this nation. To help this country by giving jobs.”
“We are now employing more than 40,000 people. But indirectly, we also have about 20,000 plus construction workers. And the retailers, they also employ thousands of people in our malls. We have the BPOs as well, and all the other related services. So the goal is to do five million jobs in the next five to 10 years, at least within our ecosystem,” he continues.
Kevin says they now want to focus on “upskilling.”
“We’re launching a school called the ALT, which are my father’s initials. It’s called the Academy for Leisure and Tourism. The thinking was, you know, we’re losing about 300 to 400 people a year from our hotels to properties abroad.”
Kevin doesn’t lament the exodus of skilled hotel workers. “Let’s not fight them. Because what are you going to do? Are you going to try to offer them more? You can’t. They will be offered more. And it’s good for them to leave anyway because they send money back. It’s good for their family. So, instead of fighting that reality, let’s embrace it.”
Thus, he is very upbeat about ALT, the school.
“We’ll fund it. We’ll train the next generation of hospitality professionals, waiters, servers, front office people, the kitchen staff, dealers in the casino even. You need to be skilled to do things like that, even. And then we’ll deploy them in our property first.”
He concedes that the best ones will eventually leave, but likes to look at that development positively.
“Because when they go abroad, they send remittances back. They get trained, and they come back after 10 to 20 years. They come back more experienced. So, it’s like a cycle. It’s like a cycle that we want to join. So, let’s help the country by creating this, by joining in the ecosystem.”
For Kevin, generating jobs and training Filipinos for jobs, even jobs abroad, are two ways of propelling the Philippines forward.
“We’re profitable, we’re doing well. At the same time, our goal as a group is to help the country and society. In all the things we’re doing, that’s always our goal.”
At the end of the day, Kevin is most grateful for family — and his family includes the Filipino.
You may e-mail me at [email protected]. Follow me on Instagram @joanneraeramirez.
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