‘The Sit-Down’ exclusive: Kyle Tan, a taipan’s grandson, on leading Tanduay

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A quiet workday morning in Quiapo, Manila, might be part of Kyle Tan’s routine, but nothing about his journey has been. Inside his office at Tanduay Distillers Inc., two framed NBA jerseys hang on the wall—a constant reminder of his late father, Lucio “Bong” Tan Jr., and the unexpected path he had to take.

At only 24, Kyle was placed in a leadership role at one of the country’s most iconic brands, a sudden transition that began in November 2019.

A stranger to the local corporate world, having grown up in the United States (US), Tan found himself at the helm of a business empire built by his grandfather, taipan Lucio Tan. Today, Kyle, the younger of two sons of Bong, lives in Quezon City with his brother and their grandparents.

He makes the journey to the Tanduay office at least once a week, a trip that has forced him to confront one of his biggest adjustments to life back in Manila: the traffic.

“I only manage to drive on Sundays, when traffic is less,” he says with a slight laugh. He has a soft spot for the simple pleasures of American life, like a good hamburger—a treat he’d eat every day, he says, if only it weren’t for the calories. His responsibilities keep him from his second home, allowing him to return to the US only twice a year.

The weight of leadership

The weight of a family legacy is a heavy one, but Kyle, now 29 years old, carries it with sense of duty and humility. The core values instilled by his family—discipline, hard work, and the “family” culture within the company—are his guiding principles.

“I think the hardest and the most driven aspect that the family really tries to instill in everybody is, like, just the discipline and hard work,” he shares in an interview on Manila Bulletin’s newest video podcast “The Sit Down.” “And I think that everything comes downstream from that.”

His grandfather, who is known to many as Kapitan, remains a constant source of inspiration.


“His work ethic is probably the best work ethic that I’ve ever seen in anybody,” he says. Kapitan’s business philosophy has become his “North Star,” a framework for navigating complex decisions.

“Whenever I’m thinking about a particular business decision, I would oftentimes look at the philosophies that he’s kind of instilled in us and being like, okay, I’m not sure what logically to do in this situation, but what would he do.”

He co-leads most of their family-run businesses with his elder brother, Lucio “LT3” Tan III. Their working relationship is founded on mutual trust and complementary strengths.

“In very many ways, we’re similar, and in very many ways, we’re different,” Tan explains. “I think the best relationship that we have in the working context is the fact that we trust each other 100 percent.”

As they live together, making late-night huddles over big decisions is a common occurrence. Major plans are discussed with their grandparents, and a unanimous agreement is required before moving forward.


“Unless there’s a unanimous agreement on every party, we won’t do it,” he says, a proof of the Tan family’s collaborative and consensus-driven approach.

The unexpected passing of his father was a great hardship that shaped Kyle’s professional journey.

“The hardships that the family has faced in November 2019, I mean, oftentimes it’s too hard to describe with words,” he says. But the experience has instilled sense of resilience and deeper appreciation for his role.

“All hardships you can move forward from and you could learn from,” he says. “His legacy and his existence meant a lot to the Philippines and to our companies. So in a way, like me being here, my brother also, we’re standing on his shoulders as well.”

As a young leader from a prominent Filipino-Chinese family, Kyle admits he had faced skepticism. However, his approach to managing this external pressure is straightforward: focus on the work.


“You focus on the work ethic and you don’t focus on the pressure, external pressures, and the doubt, because you can’t really directly change other people’s thinking about you by thinking about it,” he advises. “You kind of just have to do the work and then if adjacently, it changes, good, if not, then you can’t change it by thinking about it more.”

Beyond a family legacy, Tan is charting a new course for Tanduay, focusing on technological innovation and global expansion.

As a computer engineering graduate, he believes “you can’t unlink technology” from any modern business. During the pandemic, Tanduay launched its own e-commerce platform, Shotstar.ph, an initiative that “really started picking up our online sales.” He credits this digital pivot with helping Tanduay maintain its dominance in the local market.

But Tan’s vision extends far beyond the Philippines. He is focused on expanding Tanduay’s global footprint, particularly in the premium rum segment.

Kyle challenges the notion that “premium and distinctly Filipino” cannot coexist. “I think that they can be one and the same,” he states.

The key lies in leveraging Tanduay’s authentic Filipino heritage. “We age in the Philippines, using the products that we own here in the Philippines, grown here in the Philippines. It works. It works very well.”

This authenticity has been a key selling point for international distributors. Tan says the product “sells itself” because of its quality and origin.

He shares positive feedback from abroad, noting, “When we give them the product, it’s like a handshake already.”

With further global expansion on the horizon, how does he plan to secure the future of Tanduay while staying true to his family’s legacy?

Learn more about how Kyle Tan navigates leadership and legacy on “The Sit-down,” streaming soon on YouTube and Spotify, with edit downs and verticals on Manila Bulletin Facebook Page and TikTok.