In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 1950
- Birthplace
- Plaridel, Bulacan, Philippines
- Country
- Philippines
- Nationality
- Filipino
- Known for
- Developing the SM family’s retail and banking businesses across generations
- Current roles
- Vice chair, SM Investments; chairperson, BDO Unibank
- Family business
- SM Group, founded by Henry Sy
- Education
- Assumption College
- Core experience
- Retail operations and banking
Why this life matters
Sy-Coson represents both the operating discipline and succession structure behind SM’s growth, with a career that moved from store floors to leadership of one of the Philippines’ largest banks.
Timeline
Key moments
Born in Bulacan
Born in Plaridel and raised as the eldest of Henry and Felicidad Sy’s six children.
Learned the retail business
Worked part-time in an SM store while studying and learned operations beside her father.
Took on store leadership
Helped develop the department-store business as SM expanded beyond its shoe-store origins.
Became president of Shoemart
Assumed leadership of the family’s core retail company.
Helped reshape BDO
Oversaw the period in which BDO invested in and then merged with Equitable PCI Bank.
Guides SM and BDO
Serves as vice chair of SM Investments and chairperson of BDO Unibank.
An operating education inside SM
Sy-Coson grew up while her father Henry Sy was building a shoe business into a department-store company. She worked in stores while still a student and learned merchandising, customers and day-to-day operations before taking senior responsibility in the group.
Her appointment as president of Shoemart in 1990 placed her at the centre of SM’s retail expansion. As the group added malls, supermarkets, property and financial services, she became one of the principal links between the founder’s entrepreneurial model and a more formal second-generation governance structure.
Building scale in banking
Sy-Coson also concentrated on banking. BDO’s growth included the combination with Equitable PCI Bank, completed in 2007, which broadened its branch network, deposits and corporate reach. She serves as BDO chairperson while professional management handles the chief-executive role.
At SM Investments she remains vice chair, working alongside siblings, next-generation family members and professional executives. Her career shows that succession in a family conglomerate can be an operating process as much as an inheritance: authority was built through decades in the retail and banking businesses.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Teresita Sy-Coson
- Who is Teresita Sy-Coson?
- Teresita Sy-Coson is a vice chair of SM Investments and chairperson of BDO Unibank. Sy-Coson represents both the operating discipline and succession structure behind SM’s growth, with a career that moved from store floors to leadership of one of the Philippines’ largest banks.
- What is Teresita Sy-Coson best known for?
- Teresita Sy-Coson is best known for developing the SM family’s retail and banking businesses across generations.
- When and where was Teresita Sy-Coson born?
- Teresita Sy-Coson was born in 1950 in Plaridel, Bulacan, Philippines.
Sources and further reading
How this biography was checked
Core dates and offices are checked against the sources below. This profile was last reviewed on 8 September 2026.
