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A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP

When Washington Z. SyCip passed away unexpectedly on a Philippine Airlines
flight to New York on October 7, 2017, and after the initial shock had given way to
an outpouring of grief among the many who knew him on both sides of the Pacific,
the tributes came flooding in.

His loss was most deeply and immediately felt by the business community with
which he had worked for decades, and whose fortunes he helped transform—not
only through SGV but through the sheer power of his leadership and example. With
most of his contemporaries gone, it was left to a new generation of entrepreneurs to
lament his loss and to extol his legacy.

Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala observed that “Wash SyCip’s passing away marks a
generational shift for the Philippine business community. He was dedicated to the
Philippines across a spectrum of social and economic issues, and he will leave a lasting
legacy of progressive engagement on national issues. He was a mentor and guide but,
most importantly, he was a friend.”

Federico “Piki” Lopez echoed this: “Wash has counseled three generations of Lopezes
since my grandfather’s time. A few years ago I met a third-generation CEO of a large
European business family who told me pretty much the same thing: that he was also
the third generation in his family to benefit from Mr. SyCip’s wise counsel and advice.”

The son of his good friend Monching del Rosario, Ramon del Rosario, Jr. noted
Wash’s “greatness of spirit, always willing to share his wisdom with his colleagues in

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