More than a thousand guests, clients, partners and associates of the Philippines’ leading real estate service company Santos Knight Frank celebrated its 25th anniversary at Okada Manila on Nov. 7 in a grand modern-day Filipino fiesta.
Leading the festivities was chairman and CEO Rick Santos, who founded Santos Knight Frank in 1994 as the Philippines’ first and, today, largest fully integrated real estate service provider. Santos Knight Frank now employs more than 1,400 professionals from across 11 market-leading service lines, responsible for nearly four million sqm. of office space transactions and 20 million sqm. of property under its management across the country.
The event comes on the heels of the Knight Frank Asia Pacific Conference in Manila, and attended by Knight Frank’s group executive board led by Alistair Elliott, senior partner and group chairman; service line leaders and country heads from offices in North America, Africa, Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific.
Highlighting the colorful culture of the Philippines, the event featured a massive ensemble of dance festivals and a parade of lechon. Associates from Santos Knight Frank showcased their creativity and talent during the “Battle of the Generations,” a series of group presentations from various service lines of the company. The transactional team composed of Santos Knight Frank’s OSCA, valuations, residential and research departments were eventually crowned as champions.
Together with Knight Frank managing director for Asia Pacific Kevin Coppel, Alistair turned over the group’s donations to the Makati Mavericks Sports Foundation, which include rugby sportswear, school supplies and cash to support the organization’s youth sports development programs.
Mavericks was established in 2011 by Rick Santos, Bill Brown (assistant superintendent of International School Manila) and their sons Ryan Santos, Reed Santos, Rand Santos, AJ O’Regan-Brown and Wiremu O’Regan-Brown. Mavericks pioneered the growth of cross-cultural and gender-inclusive youth rugby in the Philippines and today focuses on helping impoverished street kids and orphans to access new opportunities in life through sports.
Santos shares, “We are delighted to have reached 25 years as a company. Our values of family, integrity, respect, service excellence and teamwork have been the cornerstone of our business for a quarter of a century. We’re not here simply to profit; but most importantly to help the Philippines create jobs, build a strong middle class and contribute to the remarkable success story of our country.”