Leonardo Salvador Sarao (13 April 1921 – 31 July 2001) was the founder and owner of the

Sarao Motors Sarao Motors, Inc. is a Filipino automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Las Piñas, Metro Manila, the Philippines. The company specializes in designing, engineering, manufacturing, and distributing the jeepney.

, a company known for designing, manufacturing and selling the

jeepney A jeepney (), or simply a jeep (), is a type of Public transport, public utility vehicle (PUV) that serves as the most popular means of Transportation in the Philippines, public transportation in the Philippines. Known for its crowded seating ...

, the most popular mode of transportation in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. He is not the first person to alter the surplus

jeeps Jeep is an American automobile brand, now owned by multi-national corporation Stellantis. Jeep has been part of Chrysler since 1987, when Chrysler acquired the Jeep brand, along with other assets, from its previous owner, American Motors Cor ...

left behind by the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

from

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

,Blueberry (2007-09-23
"Sarao Jeepney"
Public Utility Vehicles. Retrieved on 2013-04-25. but he saw them as a business opportunity for

mass transportation Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

. He redesigned the surplus jeeps to increase its functionality by extending the body to accommodate at least twice the number of passengers and by putting some railings at the back and top for extra passengers to cling to, and for cargoes."Remarkable Philippine Jeepneys"
Center for Philippine Studies,

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa The University of Hawaii at Mānoa is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Hawaiʻi system and houses the main offic ...

. Retrieved on 2013-04-26. He revolutionized a burgeoning industry and changed the life of generations of Filipinos.Santos, Michelle D
"Great Leaders in Our Midst"
The Outstanding Filipino (TOFIL) Award. Retrieved on 2013-04-26. Leonardo Sarao was awarded The Outstanding Filipino Award (TOFIL) in 1991 for

Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entrepreneu ...

. He started Sarao Motors from a borrowed

PHP PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared towards web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by the PHP Group. ...

700. Though he only attained

Grade 6 Sixth grade (also 6th grade or grade 6) is the sixth year of formal or compulsory education. Students in sixth grade are usually 11-12 years old. It is commonly the first or second grade of middle school or the last grade of elementary school, an ...

level of education because of

poverty Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse Biophysical environmen ...

, he was able to make the company grow into a multimillion

peso The peso is the monetary unit of several Hispanophone, Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, as well as the Philippines. Originating in the Spanish Empire, the word translates to "weight". In most countries of the Americas, the symbol com ...

conglomerate. "TOFIL Awardee - Leonardo S. Sarao"
The Outstanding Filipino (TOFIL) Award. Retrieved on 2013-04-26.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarao, Leonardo S. 20th-century Filipino businesspeople 1921 births 2001 deaths People from Imus People from Las Piñas Businesspeople from Metro Manila Filipino company founders