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March 10th, 2007 09:02 PM #1Got this from email, just like to share it with you.
The Wealthiest Filipino...
not on Forbes List
Engineer Diosdado 'Dado' Banatao
"The Filipino Computer Guru" [Image Removed] What do Filipino American
entrepreneurs Elizabeth Rivera, Rodolfo Dorilag and Diosdado Banatao have in
common?
All of them own multimillion dollar companies in California's high tech center,
the Silicon Valley in Santa Clara. While Rivera owns RiveraTech Multimedia,
Dorilag has Micro-Integration Engineering.
Banatao holds many lucrative companies.
An Ilocano and Ibanag speaking engineer, he hails from Barrio Malabbac, Iguig
Town, Cagayan Province in Northern Luzon Island, Philippines.
He finished electrical engineering Cum Laude at Manila's Mapua Institute of
Technology.
A pioneer in graphics acceleration, he introduced the semiconductor industry's
first single-chip graphical user interface accelerator which significantly
enhanced the performance of today's PC's.
This chip is now found in at least nine out of 10 PC motherboards. It was also
Dado's genius that gave the world the first Ethernet controller chip that
enabled computers to link up and to
communicate with one another and the first chip set that significantly reduced
the complexity of the personal computer.
By the time IBM introduced the personal computer in the early 1980's, Banatao
was already deep in chip technology research and experimentation. He immediately
saw that the computer chip had to be redesigned to make it more compact and
cheaper to produce.
Under his own companies, Mostron and Chips & Technology, he developed the chip
set for the PC that made the personal computer affordable to millions of people.
He was also founder and past CEO of othercomputer-related multimillion dollar
companies, including California's S3, Inc. which makes high-speed video chips.
Never content until an invention of his could be made accessible to many,
Banatao has had the satisfaction of knowing that the products of his genius
continue to benefit not only Silicon Valley but also the Philippines and the
rest of the world.
"I have lowered the cost of the computer, made it high performance. If you look
at the names in the U.S. that have made a tremendous impact on the PC, I would
be one of them," he said. When
inquired by the Philippine Daily Inquirer about American business monopolies:
"Do you think Bill Gates has learned his lesson or...? You think they'd easily
give in?"
His response was, "Not Bill Gates. He's a very shrewd businessman. He is plain
good, that's why Microsoft is Microsoft. Microsoft is not successful by
accident. They are very good! [Grins] His human side, I heard--because I don't
interact with him--that he's not fun to be around with. [Laughter] Maybe he just
doesn't know how to enjoy himself."
Banatao flies his own plane, someting he learned right after college. He told
the Inquirer, "I splurge on airplanes; I have one now and I have ordered a
business jet and I'm about to buy a turbine. I
splurge on very high-performance cars--a Porsche. I splurge on resort
properties, like in Lake Tahoe and Sonoma, San Francisco."
He is married to a Filipina, the former Maria Cariaga, an educational
psychologist. The two have two boys and one girl. The eldest son is a future
Ph.D. in bio-informatics, a combination of biology and computer science. The
second son graduated in 1999 from the University of California at Berkeley with
a degree in material science. The youngest child is still at UCB
Banatao's Contributions to the Computer Industry:
1. First single-chip, 16-bit microprocessor- based calculator (while at
Commodore in 1976)
2. First single-chip MicroVAX for Digital Equipment
3. First 10-Mbit Ethernet CMOS with silicon coupler data-link control and
transreceiver chip; got
3Com into the Ethernet PC add-in card business (while at Seeq in early
1980s)
4. First system logic chip set for the PC-XT and the PC-AT (while at Mostron in
1984 and Chips
and Technologies in 1985)
5. First enhanced graphics adapter chip set (while at Chips and Technologies in
1985)
6. Pioneered local bus concept for PC (while at S3 in 1989)
7. First Windows accelerator chip (while at S3 in 1990)
8. Chips & Techs - acquired by Intel
The following article can be found at Filipinology Resources:
The Wall Street Journal & Filipinas Magazine (May 1998)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Filipino richer than Tan, Sy and Zobel combined?
By Emil Jurado
There is one Filipino, who is totally unknown to many, who may have been missed
by Forbes Magazine among its list of billionaires.
This Filipino with his Filipino wife, now a Fil-Am living at Atherton,
California in a $20 million house (Bill Gates, the no. 1 in the list at more
than $50 billion has a $50 million house in Seattle), is
estimated to have a $5 billion fortune, according to those who knew him, because
of a computer chip he invented used by every computer you buy.His name is
Conrado "Dado" Banatao, born in an Ibanag barangay called Maladbac at the town
of Iguig, north of Tuguegarao, Cagayan
province, who had to work as a parish priest sacristan to be able to pay for his
tuition and other needs to be able to study at the Ateneo de Tuguegarao.
According to lawyer-sportsman- businessman "Boy" Reyno, who knew him in school,
Banatao belonged to "Class C" of average students. After graduation in 1961, he
went on to study electrical
engineering at Mapua Institute of Technology after which he was hired by PAL and
worked in California. Soon enough, Banatao worked at the Silicon Valley where he
made his fortune.
Banatao flies his two Lear Jets to New York and other US capitals and has about
20 venture capital firms to his name. He is relatively unknown, because he
doesn't go around publicizing his name. He had been to the Philippines several
times, trying to interest tycoons like Jaime
Zobel de Ayala to join hands with him. In fact, he's a trustee of Ayala
International.
Bank and insurance taipan Al Yuchengco wanted Banatao to be his partner at
Mapua, but the latter declined because he had no time for the academe. However,
Banatao is willing to share with Filipinos his experience. He has been donating
a lot to worthwhile Filipino projects.
Banatao's story could well go down in Philippine history as the story of a poor
boy who worked real hard, had a vision, patience, fortitude and discipline and
would well be the richest Filipino alive, but is never mentioned by Forbes.
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March 11th, 2007 12:24 AM #8
The second article by Emil Jurado, is not accurate. The name is not Conrado, it's Diosdado. I also don't think he's richer than the three combined. I'm not even sure he's richer than Ayala, Sy or Tan separately.
He also doesn't have 20 venture capital firms. AFAIK, he only has several which he is personally involved in. These firms have investments in other companies. Now those will total 20 or above.
After attending Mapua, he studied at PAL to become a pilot. But before becoming one, I think it was Boeing who hired him and brought him to the US.
I've met him several times. He's a very down to earth person, given his stature. He's definitely one of the richer Filipinos. Or at least Filipino decent. I'm not sure he's a Filipino citizen anymore and that's why he's probably not on the Forbes list. I also don't think he has a $5 billion fortune. He would have definitely made the Forbes list of richest people in the world if that were the case. He's rich that's for sure.
Although he's rich now, he doesn't flaunt it in an obsence way. When you meet him in person he's simple. He dresses simply, acts simply and is very low key. He doesn't even have a driver or staff in the U.S. like most rich people do. Someone cleans their house for them but on a part-time basis. No maids or chauffers or anything like that. The only staff I know are the pilots for his planes.
Since this is tsikot and to keep it somewhat related, he does love cars, especially porsches. His current ride the last time I checked is a Carrera GT. His wife drives a Cayenne Turbo.
I'm really sad to see that Emil Jurado wrote such an erroneous article. He should have checked his facts first.
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sinabi moh! i hardly see my children now. when they were young, schedules were more predictable.
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