Henry Sy’s grandson to build his own empire outside the shadows of his grandfather

• Grandson of Henry Sy set to make a name outside of SM Group
• Howard Sy shares his struggles before founding his own business

Despite the pressure on settling down, the Philippines’s richest man Henry Sy‘s 29 year-old bachelor grandson is focused on his career and building his own business outside the shadows of his grandfather.

“I’ll probably focus on career right now, but at the same time na-pe-pressure na rin ako because you don’t want to be too old for your kids,” 

Howard Sy, owner of self-storage company, StorageMart, is the third son of Hans Sy, a board member and former president of SM Prime Holdings.

In an interview with ABS-CBN, he stated that after graduating from University of Melbourne, Howard has worked investment banker for Macquarie Group wherein no one cares where he’s from. It was just normal for him to finish twelve-hour working shifts.

“Every time you go to the office there’s always someone there doing something. It’s something you really rarely see in the Philippines,” he commented about the work atmosphere abroad.

He expressed that the work was tiring but he strived hard and saved money to build his own business.

“The money’s great pero nakakapagod (it’s tiring). So what I did was I used it as stepping stone na lang, make a lot of money there and then throw it into my own business,”

Howard also shared his nerve-wracking start with StorageMart and how his dad advised him on how to handle his business.

“The night before I signed my first check for my business I couldn’t even sleep. It was quite worrying. If you’re not hands-on, then you won’t understand what’s going through in the everyday operations,

That’s another thing my dad always says, if you have a problem and you don’t have a solution, don’t worry ’cause you don’t have a solution. If you have a problem and you have a solution, don’t worry ’cause you have a solution. So basically, don’t worry, no matter what it’s always gonna be there.”

StorageMart is not a part of the SM Group that his grandfather founded but he stated that the name is a tribute to his grandfather.