Page 43 - Priorities 65

Making a Positive Impact
Jean Henri Lhuillier ’88 is the President and CEO of the PJ
Lhuillier Group of Companies. His companies deal with
financial services such as pawning, remittance, microinsur- 43 ance, and microloan solutions. Lhuillier is also involved in
other industries including retail, hotel and restaurant man-
agement, IT, sports management, and real estate. His flag-
ship brand is Cebuana Lhuillier, the largest microfinancial
institution in the Philippines.
Lhuillier explains how it all began, “Our company start- ed as a small pawnshop and jewelry store established in Cebu, Philippines by my grandfather. It was my father who brought the business to the capital Manila and started opening a number of branches in other parts of the coun- try, mainly providing pawning services to the Filipinos.”
When Lhuillier was a young boy, he would watch his father work and he always knew that he had to come back and help him some day. He said, “As early as nine years old, I would go to our pawnshops and join meetings with my dad.” By age ten, he already knew he was going to join the business. “Being around a father who had a passion for the business, I picked up that passion,” he said.
Lhuillier’s time at the Priory began in the seventh grade, when he lived in the Junior Dorms which at the time housed students as young as seventh and eighth graders. His memories of Priory had a lasting effect on him. “Living in the dorms instilled in me early the essence of time management. The set study hours and structured time spent for sports day and night made things simple and efficient,” he said. Lhuillier returned to Manila each
summer and helped out in the family pawnshop outlets. He explained, “Being the eldest child, I felt the need to help make sure that things get done, and if we would be working together, I had to learn what needed to be learned from my dad.” Lhuillier had to work his way up even in the family business. “My grandfather wanted us, his grandchildren, to know our family business starting from the bottom.” he said. “So we were made to sit by the teller and learn what the teller was doing.”
After graduating from Priory in 1988, Lhuillier went on to Saint Mary’s College where he earned a degree in Economics and Business Administration in 1992. He also completed the Owner/President Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2009 and obtained a Doc- tor of Humanities (Honoris Causa) degree from the Poly- technic University of the Philippines in 2013. Lhuillier is also an alumnus of the Gemological Institute of America, where he finished Graduate Diamonds and Graduate Pearls, among other programs. In June 2014, he was con- ferred the rank of Official Knight of the Equestrian Order of Saint Agatha by the Republic of San Marino due to his
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