CEOs to mentor Filipino entrepreneurs

TLC Beatrice CEO Loida Nicolas Lewis. Photo by Elton Lugay

New York CEO and philanthropist Loida Nicolas Lewis leads a panel of U.S.-based business executives who will be mentoring Filipinos entrepreneurs on how to take their genius from local to global.

The four days of brainstorming will take place October 5 to 8 at the Manila Peninsula in Makati City. Organized by the Philippine Development Foundation, the forum – with the theme “Harnessing Filipino Innovation and Entrepreneurship” – will feature PhilDev’s U.S.-based Filipino board of directors who are established entrepreneurs and changemakers who will come home to host the event, “merging local technopreneurs with investors and gamechangers from Silicon Valley,” says a statement.

“The time has come for all to discover, highlight and harness the talent of the Filipino,” said PhilDev Chairman and Tallwood Managing Partner Dado Banatao.

Aside from Banatao, PhilDev Trustees and event chairs, Winston Damarillo, chairman and co-founder of Exist Global Inc., and Sheila Lirio Marcelo, founder and CEO of Care.com will also be advising entrepreneurs help showcase the Philippines’ software industry as a burgeoning leader in the Asean and global markets.

Other speakers will include Toby Stuart, professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Haas School of Business in Berkeley, Calif.; Loida Nicolas Lewis, chair and CEO of TLC Beatrice; Arthur Tan, CEO and president of Ayala subsidiary Integrated Microelectronics, Inc.; Eric Manlunas, founder & managing director of Frontera Group; and Trade and Industry Secretary Greg Domingo. Executives from Facebook, Google, and Dell have also been invited to become speakers and mentors.

This year’s forum will be preceded by a three-day mentoring session on October 5 to 7 at the Radisson Blu in Cebu City. “Hack2Hatch: From Hacker to Founder” is a weekend entrepreneurship camp and guided pitching session and one-on-one mentorship where local start-up founders can harness their business and technical skills and pitch to actual investors and venture capitalists who have had success in Silicon Valley.

This mentorship and speaker series aims to take the Filipinos’ innovation and entrepreneurship towards collective empowerment and economic development, said Banatao.

PhilDev focuses on building an ecosystem of science and technology-based entrepreneurship and innovation for social and economic development in the Philippines. It is a public charity registered with the United States Internal Revenue Service as a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt organization.

For more information about SVC2PH or to be a sponsor, please call PhilDev at +632-9106010 loc. 5023, 0923-343-6183, US no. 1-310-728-2142, email Jo Anne Coruña at jo@phildev.org or visit www.phildev.org/svc2ph, facebook.com/philippinedevelopment or follow @phildevfdtn, use #svc2ph, on Twitter.



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