Perhaps this childhood escapade foretold of Vivienne Tan’s future mindset as a woman. Today, she aims for something loftier than putting up just another financially successful corporation. As chairperson of the Entrepreneurs School of Asia and president of Thames International Business School, she has taken on the daunting goal of trying to help alleviate the problem of unemployment in the country through education.
I first met Vivienne Tan at the Mabuhay Lounge on the way to Osaka. She was to be the sole Filipino speaker at the Asian Business Women’s Forum that was being held there, and it would have been easy to miss the pretty young woman in a plain white T-shirt and jeans who sat quietly as she punched numbers into her new cellular phone. "I kept the plastic of the phone on so I can return it if I can’t get it to work," she said. Her practical, no-nonsense tone was a good sign. She was not one of those rich, wasteful and flighty women who simply discard things simply because they can afford it. And when we were called to board the Philippine Airlines flight, Vivienne picked up her bag and substantial carry-on luggage and walked to the plane without help. There was no special treatment for this daughter of taipan Lucio Tan who controls Philippine Airlines. Nor did she expect any.
"The rich are not like you and me," goes the oft-quoted F. Scott Fitzgerald phrase. As the daughter of one of the Philippines’ richest men, one would expect that Vivienne Tan has been sheltered and pampered throughout her life. She could always run to her father whenever problems arose – right?
"Not so," says Vivienne. She has always preferred to hurdle difficulties on her own. She recalls that when she was a small, thin wisp of an elementary schoolgirl, a big and chubby male classmate bullied her constantly. "I withstood the bullying quietly, until I could take no more," she says. Then she clobbered her tormentor. "He ran crying to his mother and the mom said, ‘Sino dyan?’ prepared to get mad at whoever hit her son. He pointed me out. But when the mom saw how tiny I was, she smacked him instead." She laughs at the memory.
"Other people expect me to continue the legacy by being a ‘carbon copy’ of my father," Vivienne admits. If anything, the humility and modesty that Lucio Tan is known for has rubbed off on his daughter who claims that they live a simple life.
While studying math and computer science at the University of San Francisco, Vivienne worked as a math tutor to augment her allowance. This entailed driving to her students’ homes and using the expensive car provided by her father. "I said that it was my roommate’s Benz. Otherwise I wouldn’t get a tip. Sayang." Vivienne was unlike other children of the wealthy who compared allowances and spent a fortune on clothes and parties. With all the resources available to her, it would have been easier for Vivienne to get a job in any of her father’s corporations. However, she worked in the I.T. industry and set up a sportswear line in the United States. Then, her father called her home. And, since filial loyalty was paramount, she sold her business, packed up and felt the acute change in her life upon returning to the Philippines.
"In the US, I was living on my own, master of my own fate, a successful executive and an entrepreneur. My dad made me his assistant for special projects. I handled projects (such as) making feasibility studies for acquiring new Boeing 747s, bidding for the new airport, all the way to the new uniforms of the flight attendants. In the Philippines, I was C.O.O. – not Chief Operating Officer, but instead, a Child Of Owner," she rues.
And then, in the way of true entrepreneurs, Vivienne Tan set out to forge a path that was separate from any of her father’s business ventures. Hence, the seeds of the Entrepreneurial School of Asia were sown.
Why venture into the field of education? "The Philippines is still struggling to fight poverty," explains Tan. "I believe that entrepreneurship will be its engine of growth. It’s a simple formula – more entrepreneurs means more jobs, more investments, leading, all in all, to a better economy."
Putting up an entrepreneurial school was no easy task when she started. "At that time, all our academic institutions were set up to develop ‘employable’ individuals. I wanted to start a new type of school. It wasn’t going to be a just another college but a school for entrepreneurs. I wanted to create an academic institution that can create future successful entrepreneurs."
Despite a recent Harvard study that ranked the Philippines as the only Asian country in the top 10 in terms of gender equality, Vivienne relates encountering some difficulties when she first put up her school. "It was a male-dominated industry where age and PhDs were the set standards. I was a young woman, only 28 years of age, obviously with no PhD, but armed with the vision and determination to innovate and make a difference. My entry in the industry in 1998 was met with both awe and cynicism. Some leaders in the industry were amused that such a young woman would take an entrepreneurial interest in education. However, most of them felt that I was just another daughter of a rich man, eager to play with a new toy."
Since then, Vivienne Tan has proven her detractors wrong. Today, eight years later, the Entrepreneurs School of Asia (ESA) has a main campus in the Philippines and a satellite site in China. The school is Asia’s first institution focused entirely on the education and research of entrepreneurship, with a program to help micro-entrepreneurs and urban poor set up their businesses.
ESA graduates in their early 20’s have set up profitable companies and have provided employment for many. And thus, Vivienne Tan’s vision to mentor entrepreneurs who will help the Philippine economy prosper is starting to come true.
The invitation to speak at the Asian Business Women’s Forum in Osaka is tangible proof that the efforts of ESA to empower youth to help economy are being recognized in the region. In addition, Vivienne Tan has been named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons for her work on business education entrepreneurship this year.
"I am no one special," she says, and it is difficult to reconcile that this attractive, simply yet elegantly dressed (in Prada) woman of substance is the same person who once caused a stir in the rumor mills several years ago for her purportedly "revealing and sexy" photographs published in a magazine. "Not true," she says. Her protective friends and associates laugh when that subject is brought up. "All she ‘revealed’ was an armpit," they joke, and Vivienne good-naturedly laughs along with them. She shares that she constantly travels and hopes to write about food and travel one day.
Vivienne Tan remains modest and focused on her goals. "I am still relatively young with so much more to learn in the future," she says. And after the grueling schedule in Japan, she takes time out to catch some shut-eye on the Philippine Airlines flight back home. She deserves it. She made us proud.