Who Is Anton Tantoco Huang? The Only Filipino Who Made It to the BOF 500 List in 2025

The Business of Fashion has revealed their BOF Class of 2025, “a definitive index of the people shaping the global fashion industry.” This year, one Filipino made it to the coveted club: SSI Group, Inc.’s President and CEO Anthony “Anton” Tantoco Huang. His induction marks the fourth Filipino to be added into BOF’s list, following V magazine founder Stephen Gan and fashion blogger Bryan Grey Yambao, famously known as Bryanboy, in 2013, and H&F Retail Concepts Founder and Managing Director Jappy Gonzalez in 2017.

According to BOF, Anton “established himself as one of the Philippines' most powerful retail moguls” after unifying his family’s luxury and fashion assets. Below, we learn more about the successful business magnate.

Anton is the grandson of Gliceria Rustia and Bienvenido Tantoco, the couple who built a family empire, now known as Rustan’s. The retail chain has since been expanding for more than 70 years. Before Anton took on the reins as CEO of the SSI Group, his late mother, Zenaida Tantoco, held the position. Apart from being a retail tycoon, Nedy, as she’s fondly nicknamed, was a patron of local arts and culture who served the CCP Board of Trustees for 19 years. Proving all that he learned from his predecessors, Anton’s leadership is said to have ushered in the hard work of his grandparents and his mother into the digital age.

Anton formed his savvy for business from the ground up. As a student, he spent school breaks minding merchandise and tending to customers. He eventually began working for the family firm full time while he was still in college. He started out at Rustan’s Department Store before moving to Rustan Marketing Corp., where he would handle the fragrance section of Rabanne. Soon after, he was assigned to Maidenform and found himself inspecting the bras they manufactured.

The COVID-19 pandemic posed a major hurdle for businesses all over the world. With everyone sequestered indoors due to nationwide lockdowns, online shopping saw a rapid boom as everyone turned to their phones to make purchases. Anton responded to this shift by launching Trunc.ph in 2020, a project originally slated for 2021. The e-commerce platform made over 100 lifestyle and luxury brands accessible to affluent shoppers with just a few taps on their phones or other devices. “It’s a multi-brand digital boutique,” Anton described in an interview.

Anton is a founding member of the Philippine Business Coalition for Women Empowerment, which was launched in March 2017. According to their website, the PBCWE is comprised of influential businesses who are also large-scale employers. Through this initiative, they have promised to "take the appropriate steps to improve gender equality in their own workplaces and to influence businesses, both in their supply chains and other large businesses, and to also become better employers of women.”

The SSI Group, Inc. is known for bringing elusive luxury brands to Filipino shoppers, including Italian-born fashion houses like Versace, Bottega Veneta, and Ferragamo. For this, Anton was bestowed the Cavalier of the Order to the Merit of the Italian Republic back in 2017. He reportedly spoke fluent Italian during the award ceremony at the residence of Italian Ambassador Giorgio Guglielmino.