Robert Kuan

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

Born to a Chinese 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 partially owned by his family, for eight years, expanding it into a small chain. After learning that the board was planning to remove him, Kuan resigned and started Chowking in 1985. Tony Tan Caktiong of Jollibee was a founding business partner.

Chowking offered both Filipino and Chinese cuisine, setting it apart from the Western-style restaurants that dominated Filipino fast food. It started a successful franchising system in 1989, growing to half the size of Jollibee, the leader of the Filipino fast food market. Kuan served as Chowking's president until 2000, when he sold his 50% equity stake to the Jollibee Foods Corporation. By then, Chowking had 155 locations.

A member of the Episcopal Church, Kuan spent his later life working for various public institutions. He invested much of his time in St. Luke's Medical Center, where he served as chairman from 1996 to 2011. , Chowking is 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 a Chinese immigrant family. Kuan's father enforced strict discipline and provided for his children's education, not wanting them to experience the hardships that he had. 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 friendly and humane". In 1970, Kuan graduated with a bachelor's degree in general 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. Despite this loss, Kuan followed his father's wishes and remained devoted to his studies. is a Chinese noodle house established in 1950. Kuan's father was one of the partners who established Ling Nam and his side of the family owned 15% equity. One of Kuan's uncles also ran the restaurant. The restaurant served short order food and was locally known for its beef wonton noodles and siopao.

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. In 1989, Chowking started a franchising system which enabled them to enter new markets with limited resources. In December 1992, a USAID report on developing American fast food in the Philippines praised Chowking, which at the time had 21 locations, as a model for success. The authors noted that the chain was likely to grow because Filipinos enjoyed Chinese cuisine and had a "newly-found concern for the clean, well-lit and quick service" that Chowking exemplified. In November, Chowking had 162 branches, including four in the United States and three in Dubai.Efn|Contemporary news reports note that Chowking had 162 branches, including four in the U.S. and three in Dubai. Later sources claim that Chowking had 155, with three in the U.S. and three in the Middle East.

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 a great debt of gratitude ("utang na loob") 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 chief executive officer, viewed Creative Dining as a sort of experiment following Ling Nam and Chowking.

St. Luke's relied on government subsidies and church funds, but Quasha wanted to turn it into a "world-class medical center" which could support itself and establish its own centers of excellence. When Quasha died in 1996, the board wanted Kuan to succeed him as chairman. Kuan was initially reluctant to accept the role but came to see it as a religious calling. To raise money, all surplus funds went back into the hospital. He served as chairman of Brent Schools, Inc. and Brent International School Baguio. He joined the board of trustees of Far Eastern College — Silang and Brent International School Manila in 1989 and served as the board and corporate secretary for the latter. He was also on the board of trustees for Brent International School Subic. Aside from education, Kuan was a board member of Chinabank and Seaoil.

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

Personal life Kuan was an Episcopalian and his faith influenced his role at St. Luke's. Kuan died on September 15, 2018. He was cremated per his wishes.