Dennis Uy was born and raised in Davao City to an ethnic Chinese family based in Davao City and is part of the Uys' third generation. Uy's grandparents, Ega Uy and Tao Sui Eng were ethnic Chinese who settled in Davao as merchants and had a store which sold fishing equipment and bread while his parents ran a small business which sold copra. He is the eldest among siblings. According to his own account, Dennis played basketball as a childhood hobby while at the same time sold school supplies and basketball cards to his classmates. Uy entered De La Salle University in Manila to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Business Management degree and started to trading in the stock market. He graduated from the institution in 1993. Since he had an average academic performance by his own account he decided against being a lawyer and described himself to be poor in memorization to consider pursuing a career in law.
Career
Business career
After finishing his tertiary education, Dennis Uy helped ran his family's business and interacted with older businessmen. His family's business was based in Tagum, and was involved in mining, supermarkets, car dealership among other industries. Uy worked with his family for ten years and at one point ran seven firms simultaneously. He decided to start his own business to gain independence as he felt that he did not have the freedom he aspired for himself working for his family. He started his own business using income he gained from trading stocks while he was still in college and set up Dencio's Kamayan, a barbecue store which shares the same name but unrelated to a Manila-based restaurant chain. He started his business portfolio independently without the aid of his family members. The barbeque chain grew to at least eight outlets before handing over the business to his sister when he decided to focus on participating in the petroleum industry. He also operated two community newspapers which served Davao City but both became defunct. In 2002, he along his wife founded Udenna Corporation a holdings company that would later manage his business interests in various industries. Within the same year, Phoenix Petroleum then known as the Oilink Mindanao Distribution Company was established. In 2004, the company was renamed as Davao Oil Terminal Services Corp. As part of this business Uy set up a six million-barrel oil terminal serving businesses in the Davao region. Phoenix Petroleum adopted its name in 2006 and was listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange in 2007 and became the first Davao City-based company to join the stock market. He founded Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp. which is involved in the shipping and logistics industry and controls 2GO, a passenger ferry company. In 2016, Uy's Udenna Corporation had various acquisitions. Udenna secured permission from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation to develop a casino resort near the Mactan-Cebu International Airport. It also entered the liquefied petroleum gas industry and acquired Enderun Colleges. In November 2017, Udenna took over the development of the former Global Gateway Logistics City at the Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga which was later relaunched as Clark Global City. And in 2018, a consortium between Udenna's Mislatel and China Telecom won the government-sanctioned bidding that would allow the consortium to become the third major telecommunications provider in the Philippines challenging the duopoly of PLDT and Globe Telecom.
Diplomatic career
Aside from being a businessman, Dennis Uy is also a diplomat. He has been the honorary consul to Kazakhstan since November 2011 and is tasked to develop the bilateral ties of the Philippines with the Central Asian nation.
