Lesley Anne Tan • In a state of joy

MANILA, Philippines - You talk to Lesley Anne Tan, director of communications of Shangri-La Makati, and you see a woman with a heart so whole that she rubs off on you her positive disposition. Her inner self is a repository of joy, a storeroom of many possibilities, a fountain from which happiness springs forth every day.

“I have a very good outlook in life because of my family. I am very lucky because I come from a family whose members are very expressive. We always say ‘I love you’ to each other. We hug each other a lot,” says Lesley.

She grew up in Cebu where her parents, Benjamin and Susan Tan, maintain an electrical supplies business. They raised her and her two younger siblings, Stephanie and Ryan, “filled with love and overflowing happiness. ”

“My dad taught me that education is the greatest gift,” says Lesley who finished Communications at the Ateneo de Manila University. She also took up an intensive post-graduate course in International Affairs at the New York University. Then, she went on to pursue an online management course at Cornell University while doing a two-month intensive hospitality management course at Shangri-La Academy based at the Sun Yat-Sen University campus in Zhuhai, China.

A self-confessed “Daddy’s Girl,” Lesley adds, “I also learned from my dad independence and good work ethics. He would always tell us to pursue whatever it is we want to do and to take ownership of it.”

Indeed, Lesley always puts dignity to whatever she does in her job. She started with Shangri-La Mactan in 2006 as an assistant communications manager. In 2009, she became the hotel’s restaurant marketing manager. The following year, she applied for the position of director of communications at EDSA Shangri-La and was hired three days after she filed her application. In 2012, she moved to Shangri-La Makati as the hotel's director of communications.

“I am fortunate that in my almost eight years with the company, I have had many mentors who selflessly shared with me their knowledge,” Lesley says. Foremost of the lessons inculcated to her by her colleagues are the hotel’s  core values of “humility, helpfulness, courtesy, respect, sincerity and selflessness.”

Learning these values are very easy for her because they are the same ideals instilled in their home.

In fact, it was in their home in the island of Cebu that Lesley first learned to have a great sense of adventure. “My mom taught me that traveling is the best teacher. I was seven years old when I went with my dad to Hawaii, Guam, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and all over the US for one month,” she says. Ever since then, Lesley’s wanderlust has brought her to almost every destination she desires.

“But the ‘nerd’ in me surfaces every time I travel. Aside from parks and restaurants, I always go to the libraries and museums to learn about a country’s history and culture,” says Lesley whose first best friends were the characters in the Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie books she read as a child in their library at home. She went on to meet other fictional characters that would further whet her appetite for traveling.

But no matter how much of the globe Lesley has seen, she always knows that her loving and nurturing family in Cebu will always be her world.

Photography by SHAIRA LUNA of At East | Jed Root • Creative direction by LUIS ESPIRITU JR. • Styling by TARA SUBALDO • Makeup by RIA AQUINO for MAC Cosmetics • Hairstyling by AVRIL SEGUIN • Jewelry by MILADAY JEWELS • Shot on location at SOLAIRE RESORT & CASINO’s EXECUTIVE LOUNGE