UST confers award to Wilcon founder
The University of Santo Tomas (UST) Faculty of Engineering has honored Wilcon Depot Inc. founder and chairman emeritus William Belo with its prestigious Thomasian Engineer Hall of Fame award for “embodying the ideals of UST and showing the world what it means to be a Thomasian engineer.”
Belo, a UST electronics engineering graduate in 1973, was officially inducted into the Thomasian Engineer Hall of Fame for Entrepreneurship and included in the list of the UST Faculty of Engineering’s most outstanding alumni and engineering professionals.
“William Belo is a brilliant Thomasian engineer, a one in a million entrepreneur who established Wilcon Depot and upgraded the construction industry in the Philippines to the next level. Wilcon Depot is a one-stop shop where everything you need in construction is there,” said UST Engineering Alumni Association Inc. (USTEAAI) president Jerenato Alfante.
Belo, who was born in Amoy, China, grew up in the Philippines, studied at UST and started his own hardware stores in Quezon Avenue in 1977 with only a few hardware and construction materials. A focused man with strong desire to be of service to the Filipino homebuilders, he established Wilcon Depot, now the country's leading home improvement and construction supply retailer.
His influence across industries has also earned him the coveted "Grand MVP Bossing Award” which recognizes topnotch entrepreneurs in the Philippines.
Belo likewise received the Philippine Retailers Association's (PRA) President’s Award, the highest award given by PRA in cooperation with the Department of Trade and Industry, in recognition of his insightful and commendable leadership at the helm of Wilcon Depot, thus making it the country’s largest and most successful in home building retail.