Henry Sy, Sr. (born December 25, 1923) is the founder and chairman of SM Prime Holdings, the largest retailer in the Philippines. He earned his Associate of Arts degree in Commercial Studies at Far Eastern University in 1950. Acknowledged as the country’s "Retail King," he has come a long way from the modest shoe store he set up in Quiapo in 1946, to become Asia's biggest shopping mall operator with 30 malls throughout the Philippines.
He is the Philippines' richest man, gaining 1.4 billion dollars in 2007, amid the global financial crisis. The huge gain was due to his holding company, SM Investments Corp., which has interests in Banco de Oro Universal Bank, inter alia. Forbes magazine's 2008 list of 40 wealthiest Filipinos, revealed the Sy family's net worth was 3.1 billion dollars. Earlier, he was the 2nd wealthiest individual in the Philippines, next to Lucio Tan and (as of 2008) 843rd in the world. Sy is considered a Tai-Pan or tycoon of Asia. As of 2006, Forbes magazine ranked him as the 14th richest person in Southeast Asia; "Henry Sy and family" is ranked the 74th richest in the "Asia and Australia" region, and 512th richest in the world. (In the absence of evidence to support such higher claims, the Forbes numbers should taken as a "best-guess" estimate for the time being.)