About Me

I’m passionate about Harnessing Innovation for A Better World.

This is The Idea that I’ve dedicated my life towards.

I started out on this journey in a rather traditional manner :

I went to a leading university, Ateneo de Manila, and took up a business course – Management Engineering. This pedigree eventually landed me in a multinational company, wherein I went up the proverbial corporate ladder – eventually ending up as senior management in Customer Development (Sales).

However, despite all the trappings and comforts of the fast-paced corporate life, I felt that this was not my life’s direction. I yearned to do something more.

And so I did what any irrational wannabe entrepreneur would do – I turned my back on my corporate career trajectory, resigned, and dove headfirst into the rollercoaster world of being my own boss. I went All In.

My idealism just wouldn’t wear away with age, and so I chased my dream of creating valuable Filipino jobs.

After much discernment and reflection, I realized I could contribute to this vision through the convergence of innovation, entrepreneurship, social development, education, technology, and design.

Despite the variety in disciplines, I was convinced that the running thread through all of them is innovation. And this mashup of passions eventually energized my current Life’s Work :

Social Business Enterpreneurship

Co-founder and Managing Director of MicroVentures/Hapinoy – a social business enterprise focused on microenterprise development. We create prosperity in communities through empowering sari-sari stores and microbusinesses.

Founding Partner and Vice-Chairman, Rags2Riches – a social business enterprise working with marginalized communities to create designer masterpieces embodying Eco-Ethical style.

Board Member, Asian Social Enterprise Incubator – the name is pretty much self-explanatory :p

Innovation

Director and Chief Marketing Inoventor, InoventDesign – a Research, Design, and Development Firm. Focused on Industrial Design, Technology, and Inovention.

Co-Convenor, Creative Industries Initiative

Education

The Why Not? Forum – an advocacy and online forum on Inspiring Filipino Ingenuity

Part-time Faculty, Ateneo de Manila – I conceptualized and teach a class on Innovation. I’ve been working towards open-sourcing this online.

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I’ve now realized that this Life’s Work isn’t just something for the Philippines, although it is of course where my heart is. It can also become a personal contribution to the world-at-large. As such, I’ve broadened my dream into harnessing innovation for a better world.

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