Charles Stewart Lee balances leadership across his family’s businesses—from disruptive beverage innovations at Pacific Synergy to chairmanship of Anchor Land. His global mindset and commitment to Filipino innovation drive him to create brands that can compete internationally, and he’s only 34.
Charles Stewart Lee thrives on innovation. That must be it. How else would he have the energy to catch us on a call while at a bustling trade show in Dubai, before flying back to Manila for a few days where we squeeze in a shoot, only to leave again for meetings in Shanghai? As the President and chief driving force behind the youngest of his family’s businesses, Pacific Synergy Food and Beverage, he believes his mission is to disrupt. He flashes Pacific Synergy’s latest offerings on the screen: a flavored electrolyte drink called SIP Plus and a probiotic soda called Nutrifizz, the first of its kind to be sold in the Philippines and possibly in Southeast Asia.
“Pacific Synergy was born from a desire to channel fresh energy and global insights into a heavily competitive business landscape,” he says. “It was a calculated risk, trusting a very young team. We took our youthful ambition and commitment to create something new in the market.” Their portfolio includes unconventional flavors such as Honey and Himalayan Salt, a testament to Charles’s willingness to push the envelope and experiment with new ideas. “These are flavors and unique offerings that you don’t really see in the market,” he adds. “We wanted to bring in fresh ideas. We don’t want the consumer to be struck with the same boring flavors.”
What’s remarkable is that Pacific Synergy represents just one facet of Charles’s entrepreneurial journey within his family’s business portfolio. He is involved across multiple ventures, with each success earned through deliberate progression, from operations to innovation to stewardship of legacy. He started on the floors of Vikings Restaurant Group, then founded Pacific Synergy, and is now balancing his latest appointment as the Chairman of Anchor Land, which is involved in residential and commercial properties including the iconic Admiral Hotel on Roxas Boulevard where we hold this shoot.
That’s a lot on the shoulders of a 34-year-old, but Charles is undaunted. In fact, he strives for more, not just for himself or his family’s businesses, but for the whole nation. That’s why he is in Dubai.
“My goal right now is to introduce a Filipino brand into other countries that are innovative,” Charles shares. “Filipinos are always importing things that are innovative. My question is: Why can’t Filipino brands be innovative in the first place and have [these brands] go out?”
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A Global Mindset
His intense, global-first mindset comes from an inherently international upbringing, first in Hong Kong, then the United States for college at the University of Southern California, where he majored in socioeconomics and marketing. It is those experiences that equipped him with a multicultural perspective, making him more flexible and open to new ideas.
After moving to Manila to work with his family, however, Charles found Philippine businesses required a blend of global practice and local understanding. “You may want to enforce certain ideas, but it doesn’t really work that way,” he shares. “You need to be able to balance the good things from the outside and infuse it back home–embrace a new way of doing business while remaining true to local values.”
For each business within the family’s corporate empire, he adapts different tempos. “For real estate, I take a long-term visionary approach,” he explains. “For F&B, it’s fast and agile, incorporating customer feedback and rapid innovations. And for FMCG, it’s somewhere in between–building brands and creating products that resonate daily with consumers.” Thriving in this ever-changing environment, Charles embraces the unique challenges of each industry, finding excitement in their distinct dynamics.
The Apprentice
It may come as a surprise that Charles’s first role with his family after graduating from college wasn’t in any executive or even managerial capacity. In 2011, his family and several partners opened the first outlet of Vikings Luxury Buffet. There, Charles could be found taking orders, clearing tables, and getting first-hand experience in the inner workings of the industry as a regular waiter. It was an immersive experience in the thick of the hustle, navigating challenges in real-time.
“At the time, the business wasn’t as corporate, so there really wasn’t much guidance,” he reflects on those early days with gratitude. “I had to figure things out for myself. I learned the business from the ground up.”
It all paid off because listening to fellow employees and taking customer feedback taught Charles to be flexible, quick, and innovative. He eventually became Vikings’ marketing manager, driving a brand-building marketing strategy that looked at overall brand equity as opposed to traditional, purely sales-driven marketing. Since opening that first original concept a decade ago, the Vikings Restaurant Group has expanded into a multi-brand portfolio with locations nationwide.
This initial phase of Charles’s career, an entry-level position, was a deliberate apprenticeship in understanding consumer experiences and operational excellence, foundational knowledge that would prove invaluable in his later ventures.
The Entrepreneur
After his success in the F&B industry, Charles’s father approached him with another challenge, or opportunity, depending on how you look at it. Water. The same thing he had been serving to customers, now his parents wanted him to produce. Beyond that initial idea, however, Charles had to figure out everything else, from manufacturing to distribution to marketing from scratch. In 2015, he founded Pacific Synergy with its first product: SIP Purified Water.
“I didn’t know how to do any of that stuff,” he admits. “But looking back at it now, I’m so grateful. Over the past 10 years, I’ve learned that there is never just one way to do things. We’ve been hit hard with challenges left and right, up and down, from every possible angle you can think of, but we always come out stronger every time.”
“At the end of the day, water is water,” he continues. “A lot of it relies purely on the power of storytelling. And that’s what I am. I am a marketer. I know how to brand things.”
This ability to craft narratives around his products was something he first honed at Vikings and now drives Pacific Synergy’s expansion from a single purified water brand to a dynamic portfolio of products. With SIP Plus and Nutrifizz set to make waves in the industry, he’s proving that Filipino brands can be innovative and interesting.
“We are constantly creating new products. We won’t stop innovating. We will always challenge the market,” he promises.
Innovation is done not just at the level of product development but in the way the company operates, particularly when it comes to sustainability. At Pacific Synergy, he leads an internal sustainability campaign, integrating renewable energy such as the adoption of solar power in their factories. He is aiming for net-zero carbon in the coming years. Charles has also partnered with Plastic Bank, an organization that exchanges recyclable plastic for credits to purchase essential goods, such as food and hygiene products, for marginalized communities.
Pacific Synergy represents Charles’s true entrepreneurial creation, a company he built from concept to execution, which would provide critical as he prepared to take on his most significant role yet.
The Chairman
In 2020, Charles took over his father’s position as Chairman of the Board of Anchor Land, the largest and most established of their family’s ventures, leading them into their second decade of success. Anchor Land’s portfolio began with developments in Binondo, effectively modernizing the world’s oldest Chinatown with upscale residential towers before branching out into office and commercial developments and then into Roxas Boulevard, Manila Bay, and even Davao City.
From operational learnings to proving entrepreneurial acumen to now stewarding the crown jewel of their family empire. For their next frontier, Charles is looking at the millennials and Gen Z market, which he recognizes as a “lonely generation.” He sees an opportunity to reshare how real estate functions to foster deeper connections, aiming to create enduring, transformative spaces that foster a sense of community as the company goes further into hospitality real estate. Innovation, the thread that has defined Charles’s career, is ever present.
“How our generation views spaces is different from prior generations,” he says. “I’m not exactly sure how real estate will evolve. But there will be innovation. No doubt.”
This article originally appeared in our April 2025 issue.
Photography by Kieran Punay of KLIQ, Inc.
