Founder, SGV Group Washington SyCip is Founder of the SGV Group, a leading firm of auditors and management consultants, with operations throughout East Asia. Mr. SyCip is one of the Founders and Chairman Emeritus of the Asian Institute of Management in the Philippines. He is a member of the Board of Overseers of the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University and is an Honorary Chairman of the Euro-Asia Centre of INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. He served on the Board of the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies at the University of Pennsylvania from 1983 to 2000 and was President of the International Federation of Accountants from 1982 to 1985. He is a member of the International Advisory Board of the American International Group and the Council on Foreign Relations, a Global Counsellor of The Conference Board, and an Honorary Life Trustee of the Asia Society. He is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation in the Philippines and he also sits on the Board of a number of major corporations in Asia. Mr. SyCip graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Commerce degree from the University of Santo Tomas, Philippines. From the same University he obtained a Master of Science in Commerce degree (Meritissimus) and a second Master of Science in Commerce degree from Columbia University, New York. He was conferred the Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa) by the University of Melbourne, Doctor of Philosophy in Financial Management by De La Salle University, Philippines and Doctorate Degree in Accounting Education by the University of Santo Tomas, Philippines. Among his numerous honors and international awards are the 1992 Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding (the equivalent of a Nobel Prize in Asia), the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit (Verdienstkreuz 1. Klasse) conferred by the Federal Republic of Germany, the Star of the Order of Merit conferred by the Republic of Austria, Officer First Class of the Royal Order of the Polar Star awarded by H.M. the King of Sweden and the Philippine Legion of Honor, Degree of Commander conferred by the Philippine Government.