Robert Kuan

Roberto Fung Kuan (劉孝平; August 6, 1948 September 15, 2018) was a Chinese-Filipino restaurateur, businessman and philanthropist who founded the Filipino fast food chain Chowking.

Born to an immigrant family in Manila, Kuan studied business administration at the University of the Philippines Diliman and the Asian Institute of Management. He ran Ling Nam, a Chinese restaurant in Binondo his family partially owned, for eight years and expanded it into a small chain. After learning of plans to remove him, Kuan resigned and started Chowking in 1985 on Henry Sy's advice.

In a Filipino fast food industry dominated by Western-style joints, Chowking offered Filipino and Chinese cuisine. The restaurant started expanding in 1989 and became very successful, growing to half the size of market leader Jollibee. Kuan served as Chowking's president until 2000, when he sold his 50% equity stake to the Jollibee Foods Corporation; Jollibee creator Tony Tan Caktiong was a founding business partner. By then, Chowking had 155 locations.

A member of the Episcopal Church, Kuan spent his later life working for various public institutions. He invested most of his time in St. Luke's Medical Center, where he served as chairman from 1996 to 2011. Ling Nam and Chowking saw continued success, with the latter remaining the nation's largest Chinese restaurant chain.

Early life and career
Roberto Fung Kuan was born on August 6, 1948 in Manila, the eldest of four children in an immigrant family. Kuan's father enforced strict discipline and provided for his children's education, not wanting them to experience the hardships which he had, laboring like a carabao (water buffalo). After attending Hope Christian School, Kuan enrolled in industrial engineering at the University of the Philippines Diliman. However, he decided to study at the university's College of Business Administration instead, where he found people to be more "more friendly and humane". In 1970, Kuan graduated with a bachelor's degree in General Management.

After Kuan graduated, he worked for two years at Makati Supermarket. He started as a warehouse checker, but was later assigned to positions such as sales, merchandising and auditing, learning various management and business relations principles. In 1973, Kuan resigned and enrolled at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), pursuing a master's in business management.

His father gave him ₱20,000 for his education and warned him that the only thing the money could earn in the bank was interest. During Kuan's first semester, his father battled lung cancer. Kuan told his father he wanted to propose to his girlfriend, Yvonne Yap. After the formalities, Kuan's father held out his hand to shake Yap's just before they got engaged. He died shortly after. Despite this loss, Kuan followed his father's wishes and remained devoted to his studies. He later married Yap, with whom he would have four children.

In 1974, Kuan wrote his thesis on the potential expansion of Ling Nam, a Chinese restaurant partially owned by his family, under the guidance of dean Gavino Mendoza. He would receive the Triple A Award (Alumni Achievement Award), the highest honor for AIM alumni, in 1982, during his tenure with Ling Nam. After graduating from AIM in 1975, Kuan worked as an assistant manager for an early prototype of supermarket chain Ever Gotesco owned by his previous employer at Makati, but then decided to start working at Ling Nam.

Ling Nam (1975 1984)
Ling Nam on T. Alonzo St., Binondo, is a traditional Chinese noodle house established in 1950. Kuan's father was one of the seven or eight partners who established Ling Nam and his side of the family owned 15% equity. One of Kuan's uncles also ran the restaurant. Kuan started working there in December 1975 for a monthly wage of ₱500. The following year, he formed Ling Nam Enterprises, Inc. and worked 12 hours a day as chairman and president. Despite a lukewarm response from the shareholders, he was able to start five Ling Nam branches. Ling Nam served short order food and was locally known for its beef wonton noodles and siopao. However, Kuan believed that the dividends he had to pay the shareholders, including family members, stifled Ling Nam's growth, especially since there were no regular work hours. The restaurant was troubled by family disagreements and jealousies.

Fr. Emeterio Barcelon, SJ, a friend of Kuan's, recounted an anecdote he had told him in his obituary. Kuan went to ShoeMart shops so regularly that its owner, Henry Sy, asked him if he was spying on them. Sy let Kuan walk with him as he inspected his stores, and they became lifelong friends.

In 1983, Kuan learned that the board was planning a meeting to relieve him of his position, as the principal owner's son wanted to take over. Sy told him to resign before Ling Nam's issues wore out his drive. Since Kuan led Ling Nam to its peak, Sy believed Kuan could reproduce his success with his own Chinese restaurant chain. Sy also said "Start small. [...] And very soon, you will grow big." Kuan took his advice and resigned on October 16, 1984, after running the noodle house for over eight years. Ling Nam is still thriving today. After being acquired by Fruitas Holdings, there are now 34 locations.

Chowking (1984 2000)
The Filipino fast food industry was dominated by Western-style fare. Leading chains such as Jollibee, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and Shakey's Pizza sold French fries, hamburgers, and pizza. Additionally, the Filipino economy entered its worst ever recession in 1984 and traditional panciteria (noodle houses) were in decline. Despite these challenges, Kuan committed to starting what The Freeman 's Nestor Alonso II described as a chain "offering traditional Chinese food in a novel [fast food] setting" and "bridg[ing] the old and the new".

A month after leaving Ling Nam, Kuan and Jollibee founder Tony Tan Caktiong, who was a friend of his, agreed to be business partners for Kuan's new restaurant. Kuan hired an interior designer for the "modern" Chinese restaurant. To separate it from Ling Nam, he tasked an advertising agency to come up with a unique name. Instead of Ling Nam's menu of soup and noodles, he relied on his father's recipes and created viands served with fried rice such as spare ribs with douchi and steamed chicken with chorizo. Chefs in Hong Kong created the recipes which Filipino chefs trained to cook. The recipes were then standardized and automated. From the beginning, Kuan envisioned that it would become an international chain.

Chowking Food Corporation was incorporated on February 19, 1985. The principal investors were Kuan, Jollibee founder Tony Tan Caktiong and Wilson Chu. After two years, Kuan and Caktiong bought Chu's shares, so they both owned 50% of the company.

The first Chowking opened on March 18, 1985, on the ground floor of Rotary Arcade, Makati Commercial Center (now SM Makati). In 1989, Chowking started a franchise system which enabled them to enter new markets with limited resources. Its first franchise opened in the provincial city of Meycauayan, Bulacan. That year, Chowking had expanded to ten locations. It required ₱57 million to start a new Chowking franchise.

Chowking's 1992 expansion program led to the opening of the first two stores outside Luzon, in Cagayan de Oro, Mindanao, and Visayas. A U.S. government report believed that Chowking's noodles and Chinese fast food were likely to succeed because Filipinos enjoyed Chinese cuisine and had a "newly-found concern for the clean, well-lit and quick service they provide." At the end of 1992, there were 21 Chowking locations. In 1996, Chowking opened its hundredth location and expanded to the U.S. the following year.

In late 1999, Kuan agreed to sell his 50% controlling share of Chowking Food Corporation to Caktiong, chairman of Jollibee Foods Corporation, for ₱600,000. In November, Chowking had 162 branches, including four in the United States and three in Dubai. Kuan said that he sold Chowking to Jollibee because "the price was good and it was time to let go". Jollibee's acquisition of Chowking Food Corporation was completed in March 2000.

In the 1990s, Chowking held the naming rights to Chowking Fastfood Kings, a Philippine Basketball League (PBL) team. The team gave Leo Austria his big break as a coach in 1998, and Austria later said that he felt extremely indebted to Kuan for taking a chance on him. After Jollibee acquired Chowking, it sold the team to Shark Energy Drink ahead of the 2000–01 PBL season.

Creative Dining (2000 2003)
After selling Chowking, Kuan started Creative Dining, Inc., with his son, Robert Kelvin Kuan. In November 2000, the company opened a coffeehouse and restaurant called Hot! Café at Luneta. They established another Hot! Café in the Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Center, in January 2001. Creative Dining also opened Kingfisher, a high-end Chinese seafood restaurant, in the Power Plant Mall. It opened in June 2001 and closed down around two years later.

Before opening Kingfisher, Creative Dining acquired Good View, a seafood restaurant in Malate which was a favorite of Robert Kuan and his mother. The Kuans used Good View to test whether new dishes would be well-received before introducing them to Kingfisher's menu.

Robert Kuan, the chairman and CEO, viewed Creative Dining as a sort of experiment after Ling Nam and Chowking. He was mainly preoccupied with his work at St. Luke's Medical Center and the Rotary Club of Makati. Through the company, he mentored his son, the COO, in the "ins and outs" of the restaurant industry. Kelvin Kuan was given the freedom to make his own decisions and deal with the day-to-day operations, but he consulted his father for major decisions and issues.

St. Luke's (1989 2018)
When William Padua, a board member of St. Luke's Medical Center in Quezon City, decided to leave, he recommended Kuana fellow Episcopalian, the church which owned the centerto chairman William H. Quasha. Padua had noticed Kuan's small success. In 1989, when Kuan became a board member, Chowking had ten stores.

Quasha wanted to turn St. Luke's from a hospital which relied on government subsidies and church funds into a "world-class medical center", one which could be self-supporting and create centers of excellence. When Quasha died in 1996, the board wanted Kuan to succeed him. Though initially reluctant, Kuan came to see it as a religious calling and accepted the role. The board members, who practiced servant leadership, agreed to work towards Quasha's life mission. The hospital was a nonprofit and non-stock corporation; Kuan and the other members operated pro bono. When Kuan became chairman, he had to save St. Luke's from bankruptcy.

In 1996, Quasha's vision would have appeared to be very hard to reach. According to Kuan, they needed over ₱1 billion to bring St. Luke's to "world-class standards" by investing in modern equipment and new facilities. It was far more than the ₱57 million needed to start a new Chowking franchise. To raise money, the hospital reinvests all of its surplus funds. In 2003, St. Luke's Medical Center became the second institution in Asia to receive Joint Commission International accreditation. Under Kuan's leadership, St. Luke's Medical Center – Global City in Taguig opened in January 2010. In September 2011, Kuan was succeeded by Security Bank majority shareholder and chairman Fredrick Y. Dy, who had been vice chairman of St. Luke's since 1996. Kuan, who remained a board member, believed that he had succeeded in all of his goals for St. Luke's.

During his tenure, Kuan also served as chairman of the affiliated St. Luke's College of Medicine and managed a charity program which made over ₱300 million.

Other
After selling Chowking, Kuan pursued philanthropy. Kuan has served as chairman of Brent Schools, Inc. and Brent International School Baguio. Additionally, he had been on the board of trustees of Far Eastern College — Silang, Brent International School Manila, where he was the board and corporate secretary, since 1989, as well as Brent International School Subic. Aside from education, Kuan was a board member of Chinabank and Seaoil.

Kuan has been involved in Rotary International. He was elected as president of the Rotary Club of Makati 20022003 and District Governor of Rotary International District 3830 20132014. In 2012, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) filed a criminal complaint against the Makati Rotary Club Foundation, Inc. (MRCFI), and Robert F. Kuan, among others, for tax evasion. They alleged that the MRCFI had misrepresented a substantial portion of rental payments as donations, compelling their lessees to disguise them as such and even demanding interest from them.

Awards
Kuan has received numerous awards throughout his career. The University of the Philippines gave him three awards from 1996 to 2007, while AIM gave him the Triple A Award (Alumni Achievement Award), the highest honor for alumni, in 1981. He has received the Agora Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Entrepreneurship from the Philippine Marketing Association in 1996; Business Achiever of the Decade from the Philippine Star in 1996; Franchise Excellence Award as the Most Promising Filipino Franchisor for Chowking from the Philippine Franchise Association in 1999; The Outstanding Filipino (TOFIL) Award from JCI Senate Philippines and Insular Life in 2003; and Business Leadership Award (Pillar Category) from the Aurelio Periquet, Jr. Foundation in 2004.

Personal life
Kuan was a member of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines, which influenced his career at St. Luke's.

Kuan died on September 15, 2018. He was cremated per his wishes.