Washington Sycip, (1921- 2017), Founder SGV Group in the Philippines which in due course became the largest accounting firm in South East Asia and which later became a member of Athur Andersen and then Ernst and Young

Washington Sycip, known to most as "Wash", bestrode the accounting profession in South East Asia as a legend in his own life time.  He founded W SyCip and Co in 1946 as a "one man band" with the plan to make it the largest in the Philippines.  He did way more than that. It grew through a merger to become SGV and then grew further to become the largest professional services firm - auditing, assurance and advisory services in South East Asia.  In 1985 SGV  teamed up with the global firm of Arthur Andersen.  Wash handed over management of SGV the following year marking 50 remarkable years since his founding of the firm in 1946.  Long after he retired, in 2002 SGV moved its relationship to Ernst and Young following the implosion of Arthur Andersen over the Enron scandal in the US.  For those who are interested there is an online free biography on his life - https://www.washingtonsycip.org/excerpt-first-chapter/.Wash was very small in stature but he "lit up a room" and I would have to rate him as one of the most charismatic people I have ever met.  My interview took place in 1997 and, as a sign of Wash's sense of the future he made the telling observation that he was particularly concerned that, even back then, the United States was the dominant world player.  He said 'if decision makers in the US do not understand Asia and, vice versa, then everyone is in trouble."  As President Trump has just declared war on Iran, I think we could add "the Middle East".Please note that these interviews took place some time ago - over 25 years ago in the case of the South East Asian life story book and around 10 to 15 years ago in the case of the two Indian life story books.  However, their stories are correct to the time of the interviews and the objective is to demonstrate the entrepreneurial skills they exhibited at the time of the interviews in building their businesses.