Washington SyCip earned a BSC and an MSC in commerce with highest honors from the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines.

Soon after passing the CPA exam at age 18, he came to Columbia for postgraduate work. After passing the oral examination for his Ph.D his “dissertation” was interrupted by World War II. He served with the Philippine Regiment of the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force in the China-Burma-India Theater.

Mr. SyCip returned to the Philippines, where he founded an accounting and consulting firm. The firm grew rapidly and established offices in all the developing nations of East Asia.

One of the original signatories of the document establishing the International Federation of Accountants, Mr. SyCip served as federation president from 1982 to 1985. In 1968, with the assistance of the Graduate Business School at Harvard, he co-founded the Asian Institute of Management in the Philippines and has since served as the chairman of its board of trustees and board of governors. He is on the Board of Overseers of the Graduate Business School at Columbia and was the first chairman of the Euro-Asia Center of Insead in Fontainebleau, France.

Mr. SyCip is Vice Chairman of the Conference Board in New York and a member of the international advisory boards of American International Group, Chase Bank (1984-2000), and the Council of Foreign Relations in New York. He also serves as Chairman of the Asia Pacific Advisory Committee of the New York Stock Exchange. He is also on the boards of many major Philippine and Asian companies.

Mr. SyCip received the 1992 Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding. He was named to the Philippine Legion of Honor, degree of commander, in 1991. He was named Officer First Class of the Royal Order of the Polar Star by the King of Sweden in 1987 and awarded the Star of the Order of Merit by the Republic of Austria in 1976.