About the Founder
Dr. George Ty Siao Kian was born in 1933 in Hong Kong to the late Norberto and Victoria Ty who migrated to the Philippines in the 1930s. As a teenager in the 1950’s, he was raised on the values of discipline and hard work which served him well when his father Norberto entrusted the Wellington Flour Mills business to him. It was in the course of transacting with the banks for the family enterprise that he became interested in the financial services industry. By the time he was 29, he founded the Metropolitan Bank & Trust Company (Metrobank) with partners, fellow Filipino business trailblazers Don Emilio Abello, Don Pio Pedrosa and Placido Mapa, Sr.
Since then, Metrobank has grown to become a premier universal bank and among the foremost financial conglomerates in the Philippines. Dr. Ty served as Group Chairman of the Metrobank Group and Honorary Chairman of the GT Capital Holdings, official holding company of all non-banking–related businesses of the Ty family.
By way of giving back, Dr. Ty founded the Metrobank Foundation, Inc. (MBFI) in 1979. Guided by his philosophy that leadership in business implied leadership in community service, the Foundation aims to improve social conditions by providing assistance to key sectors of the society through education, visual arts, health, and in the recognition of excellence among key professions.
For his various achievements in business and community service, Dr. Ty also received honorary degrees from reputable academic institutions such as University of the Philippines, University of Santo Tomas, Philippine Normal University, and Centro Escolar University.
Dr. Ty is a recipient of various prestigious awards, which include among others, the Management Man of the Year from the Management Association of the Philippines (2006), the Order of Lakandula from the President of the Republic of the Philippines (2010); received the 2017 Ramon V. Del Rosario (RVR) Award for Nation Building conferred by the Junior Chamber International (JCI) Manila and the Asian Institute of Management’s (AIM) Center for Corporate Responsibility and MVP Bossing Lifetime Achievement Award from the PLDT Enterprise (2018).
Internationally, Dr. Ty was recognized by the Shanghai City government with a Magnolia Gold Award (2003) and by the Nanjing City as an Honorary Citizen (2010). In 2017, he was conferred with The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Matsukaze-no-Ma, Imperial Palace in Tokyo, Japan.
Dr. Ty and Mrs. Ty (3rd and 4th from the left) with the other 2017 awardees of the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star.
Watch: Tribute to Metrobank Foundation Founder Dr. George Ty Siao Kian
