SPEAKERS

Chris McCann is one of the partners and co-founders of Race Capital, a venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley. Race Capital is an early stage VC fund that leads primarily seed stage companies, typically with a first check of $1M-$4M. They were early seed investors in Databricks, Solana, Lightning Labs, Zeet, Opaque Systems, Sematic, and many other great companies. Chris is an award-winning artist, and was the National Geographic Photographer of the Year in 2016 which led to many exhibitions, showings, and commissions in the traditional art world. Because of this, Chris was an early creator on many of the NFT platforms, first on Ethereum then on Solana. He learned p5.js to create one of his own generative artworks, Waves, which he launched with Playground in September 2021. In addition to working with digital artists, he also likes to collect these artworks himself, and have built up a decent sized NFT collection of his own.

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Jeremy Au (区汉辉) is a VC and Chief of Staff at Monk's Hill Ventures who invests in founders who will transform millions of lives. Jeremy also hosts BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech, a global top 10% podcast with 30,000+ monthly listeners. He is an angel investor in 24 startups and Board Director of the Harvard Business School Club of Singapore.

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Jeremy founded and led CozyKin, an early education marketplace to Series A and acquisition by Higher Ground Education. The startup was recognized by winning Harvard Business School's New Venture Competition and the MassChallenge grand prize. Jeremy also cofounded and bootstrapped Conjunct Consulting, an impact consulting platform, to profitability, 100+ clients and thousands of trained impact leaders. He consulted across multiple Southeast Asia markets and China as a Bain management consultant. He also served as an infantry sergeant in Singapore.

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Jeremy is a public speaker on entrepreneurship, leadership and community engagement. He has been a keynote speaker and panelist for thousands across Harvard, Deutsche Bank, Singapore Global Tech Network, Boston SPARK Council, Institute of Policy Studies, Civil Service College and many others. Recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30 and Prestige 40 Under 40.

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Harvard MBA and UC Berkeley honor degrees in Economics & Business Administration. Jeremy enjoys science fiction, hiking and being a dad of two daughters.

Jen Bilango is a seasoned finance professional with a background in Web3 and investment banking. Currently serving as the Country Manager for Coins.ph, the largest regulated centralized exchange in the Philippines, she brings extensive experience and a visionary perspective to the intersection of finance and technology. With a strong foundation in traditional investment banking and a deep understanding of crypto markets, Jen is driving innovation and fostering strategic growth in the fintech landscape. Her insights and leadership are shaping the future of finance, making her a sought-after speaker and thought leader in the industry.

Leah Rasay is a creative worker and advocate who engages the use of artistic talents for social change, effective visual and service design for good governance, and events and communications initiatives for grassroots policy feedback and experience. She is a Global Social Impact House Fellow, president of the Communication Design Association of the Philippines for 2023-2025, and a DOST-PCIEERD Women-Helping-Women: Innovating Social Enterprises Grantee for Husay.co, an artist management platform that provides purposeful learning for Filipino creatives and effective creative solutions for local and international companies.

Vince Loremia is Founder/CEO of two startups - Tudlo.co in Philippines and Cleaningly.com.au in Australia. He is a tech entrepreneur with a unique ability to combine leadership & management skills with technical expertise. He helped create software applications for UNDP, World Bank and Silicon Valley-based startups. Investors for his startups include Smart Communications Inc, Ideaspace Foundation, ITU World Telecom, JFDI.ASIA, HotDesq - Advance Queensland and BlueStartups. Vince is from Cebu, Philippines and is currently based in Melbourne, Australia.

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Co-Founder & CEO at e27 | Partner at Orvel Ventures | Early stage investor in startups and funds | Active connector of startups, investors and corporates in Southeast Asia (SEA).

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Unconventional Entrepreneur. Community Builder. Inclusive Innovation. VentureBeat Women in AI Awards Finalist, The Outstanding Women in the Nations Service (TOWNS) Winner

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Tech investor and entrepreneur based in Manila, Philippines

Founder/CTO at Symph.co | Google Developer Expert for Cloud & Machine Learning | Co-Host of Geeks On A Beach

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Jason has been leading software engineering teams for more than a decade and successfully co-founded and launched Series-A startups and companies in London, Melbourne, San Francisco, and Manila. He's currently based in London and runs Mashup Garage, an engineering startup that focuses on high-end product development and technical leadership with offices in Manila & London.

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Franco is a Co-Founder and the Managing Partner at Foxmont Capital Partners. Franco is a pioneering venture capitalist in the Philippines, as the fund continues to be the only independent vc firm in the country. Foxmont currently has ~USD $25M assets under management across two fund vintages, with over 30 active portfolio companies in various startups across the Philippines.

Franco is a seasoned operator and has co-founded, led, and consulted businesses across various industries in the Philippines, including media, retail, logistics, and transportations.

Franco is also a Co-Founder and Director in Global Media Post, a boutique agency based in Singapore specializing in media production and sales, and business intelligence, supple chain sourcing, and M&A advisory services.

He is also a Co-Founder and Partner at Vintage Grail, a leading Southeast Asian watch retailer with shops in Manila and Hong Kong.

Prior to Foxmont, Franco was the Founding General Manager of Grab Philippines, having hired the first 100 employees, established the operations of GrabTaxi, and laid the groundwork for Grab’s international expansion beyond the Philippines.

Franco graduated from Syracuse University with a double major in International Relations (Maxwell School) and Literature.

Franco started his career as an analyst at the Wilson Center (Washington, DC) - the number one regional studies think tank in the world. His focus was on cross-border trade and the economic benefits of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

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Kat concurrently serves as the Executive Director of QBO Innovation Hub, apublic-private initiative which she launched in 2016 to develop the Philippines' startupecosystem; and IdeaSpace, a pioneering corporate accelerator and early stage fundbacked by the MVP Group. In this capacity, she leads one of the most active startupenablers in the country, and has worked with over 150 partners to accelerate the growthof a combined network of over 500 Filipino startup ventures across various stages andindustries.

Kat completed her B.Sc in Materials Science and Engineering, with a double major inBusiness Administration at Carnegie Mellon University in the US.

Kat is a Filipina millennial that advocates for spurring innovation and technopreneurshipas an engine for driving economic growth and competitiveness. She also leads theStartup Pinay program at QBO and hopes to support the advancement of fellow womenin the tech space.

Paul Pajo is the co-founder for SmartDevNet, Embiggen Group, ShroomHouse Productions and Nationwide.ph as well as one of the original convenors of Geeks on A Beach and current co-lead for the Meta (formerly Facebook) Developer Circles Manila. He's also the concurrent Director, Incubation Management Head and TBI (Technology Business Incubator) Manager for Benilde HIFI DOST TBI, Chairman for Plentina, Inc. and Startup Advisor for Cognity Labs. When not organizing an indie music production at SaGuijo or in Poblacion, Makati, he's training for an ultramarathon with his running buddies at Pace Partners Asia.

Jay is a serial tech entrepreneur who has founded many startups over the years and is an ardent advocate of innovation from the grassroots. Holding roles as co-founder, director, and adviser in various tech startups, he is considered to be one of the pioneers and shapers of the Philippine tech startup ecosystem.

Chris the CTO of Shoppable and founder of Startup PH. He created a technology firm on 2011 and the first cross border commerce platform on 2013 in the Philippines with his amazing friends and partners. Both were acquired by the Sterling Group of Companies in 2017.

Chris is

• a hardcore Open Source Programmer.
• a meticulous UX Product Designer.
• a mass traffic Organic Growth Hacker.
• a former CEO, CTO & SEA Tech Entrepreneur. 3 x fails, 2 x acquired, 1 ongoing.
• a Startup backer & Angel Newbie.

Ron Baetiong is CEO/Founder of Podcast Network Asia and Podmachine.  He is also Founder and Host of Hustleshare podcast.

Ron is a serial entrepreneur. (And one the hardest working & fun-loving entrepreneurs that GOAB has seen. We may be biased as Ron hosted some of the most memorable parties at GOAB).

Podcast Network Asia is the biggest Podcast Network in the Philippines that helps podcasters produce and monetize their shows using technology. Hustleshare is the #1 business podcast in the Philippines, and one of the top entrepreneurship podcasts in Asia.

In 2017, Ron created ChatbotPH, the first chatbot development agency in the Philippines. It was acquired by the Sterling Paper Group 12 months after it was conceptualized.

In 2009, Ron designed, launched and scaled the biggest nightlife app in the Asia - Partyphile. It garnered 120,000+ users (and made a mark as GOAB's most popular party instigator.)

Haifa Carina is a tech community builder with 12+ years professional experience in the IT industry. By day, she does business development as ASEAN Alliances and Programs Manager for eCloudvalley, by night she volunteers for DEVCON Philippines.

Driven by growth and impact, Haifa has evolving roles throughout her career starting in software engineering as an iOS developer to project management shifting to marketing, partnerships and sales giving her a unique perspective on how success is achieved.

When not working or volunteering, she enjoys sports like wall climbing, Spartan races and more recently, badminton.

Jojo is Co-Founder at Plug and Play Tech Center, a Silicon Valley based early stageinvestor and technology startup accelerator, which he started in January 2006. Plug andPlay accelerates over 2,000 tech startups yearly from all around the world in over 20countries in close to 40 global offices, which access a network of over angel investors,venture capital firms, and over 550 large corporations. Since inception, Plug and Playstartups have been able to raise in excess of $10 billion in funding. Plug and PlayVentures have over 1,600 companies in its portfolio, with close to 30 unicorns includingPayPal, Dropbox, Lending Club, N26, Soundhound, Honey, Flutterwave, among others.In the Philippines, Jojo is Co-Founder of Launchgarage, which started operations inMarch 2016. Patterned after Plug and Play, Launchgarage is an accelerator and investorin tech startups in the Philippines and the ASEAN region. Jojo currently advises startupsin the country, including PearlPay, Tangere, Taxumo, Magpie, Mober, Galileo, among others.

In addition, Jojo serves as a Board Member and Vice-President in the Science andTechnology Advisory Council to the Philippine government and leading universities,helping them bridge technology entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley. He is also a Board ofTrustee at De La Salle Lipa. As well, a board member at Animo Labs-ICAST of De LaSalle University.

Jojo completed his BS Business Administration studies in 1989 at the University of thePhilippines, Diliman.

Ashley is a Senior Product Owner at Synacy Inc, the software arm of the RISE Group which aims to provide quality internet and related telecom services to the Philippines and beyond. She is passionate about technology startups and has focused on the industry for the last 7 years. Apart from finding growth and personal alignment with roles in Product Management, she is excited to share her expertise in the industry to rural startup communities like her hometown in Bohol, Philippines. She established a non-profit organization that is aimed towards not only providing accessible networking and training opportunities for digital workers residing in non-metro areas of the country, but also defining an ecosystem building model better fit for these cities. While holding full-time positions, Ashley has also consistently volunteered for the Philippine tech startup community by being involved in both government and non-government efforts, most notably through Startup Weekend programs.

John Naranjo, a software engineer turned tech entrepreneur, has a knack for building software products and tech startups. He currently ignites software innovation at his venture builder firm, Bayanihan Ventures.

He's the force behind Ingenuity, a global award-winning software engineering firm catering to industries as diverse as FinTech, Healthcare, and eCommerce. John is also the founder of Hackademy, a coding school on a mission to help turn the Philippines into the global "coding capital" by training world-class software engineers.

Over his 20-year career, he has partnered with tech startups, digital agencies, and industry giants like Google, Microsoft, and AWS.

Presently, John advises the Google Developers Group in Davao, presides over the Davao Software Industry and ICT Davao (Trustee), and champions young entrepreneurship as the Founding President of the Davao City Young Entrepreneurs Association. He also sits on the board of the Philippine Science High School - Southern Mindanao Campus, Foundation Inc.

John is an alumnus of the Philippine Science High School, finished a bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from the Ateneo, and a Post-Graduate Diploma in “Innovation and Creative Entrepreneurship” from Thames International. He completed “Innovation Leadership and Global Entrepreneurship” and “Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning” at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). 

In his free time, John can be found either spending quality time with his wife and kids, or in the golf course tirelessly digging patches of grass and dirt under the scorching heat of the sun.

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Jack is seasoned business leader with 25+ years experience in leading strategy, digital innovation and business transformation initiatives in various industries and organizations in Southeast Asia and Canada.

Jack is a firm believer in shaping corporate culture around the customer with a proven track record of developing meaningful customer experience strategies with swift execution and sustainable results. His varied work experience includes senior leadership roles in Citicorp, Ayala Corporation, Dell, Yahoo! and MTV Asia.

Jack is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Jack is also cofounder and Managing Director of Cascadia Fine Wines, the leading Asian distributor of premium wines from the Pacific Northwest. Jack is a WSET Diploma candidate, French Wine Scholar (FWS), Italian Wine Scholar (IWS) and hosts a regular wine podcast on Clubhouse.

Raphael is a proud Cebuano Technopreneur. Raphael is presently the Head of Product for Broadcast of Media:Track, the fastest growing International media monitoring outsourcing hub. He has served multiple roles such as CTO & COO of Edukasyon.ph, the largest Ed-Tech Platform in the Philippines. He has also served as founding and Senior IT management of startups Upteamco (renamed to Luxclusif) and AvaPH, Fashion B2B and B2C E-commerce respectively, both funded by various global capital ventures.

Brian Vasay has been in the information, communication & technology industry for more than 10+ years and has assumed numerous roles such as Software Developer, DevOps Engineer, Solutions Architect and Educator. Currently, he is working for Crawford & Company helping multiple teams successfully implement well-architected solutions in AWS. He is also an Amazon Accredited Instructor (AAI) and active volunteer in the AWSUG tutor study group and is committed to sharing his knowledge of building cutting-edge solutions as well as providing effective mentorship to the AWS community.

Bryan Yap is the CEO and Founder of the Republiq Group of Companies (RGC.) RGC also runs BAI TV, a Facebook new media platform that produces quality Bisaya content. His team also organized the biggest digital conference in Cebu, Bai City Conference: Digital Uprising in 2018 & BaiCon Infest in 2019.

Jayvee De Leon is the Co-Founder and CEO of Forent, the Philippines' largest peer-to-peer car sharing marketplace. With Forent, owners and individuals looking for convenient transportation connect seamlessly for a secure and hassle-free experience. It's more than just a startup - it's a game-changer! Forent is funded by Buko Ventures and an angel investor.Jayvee's journey is truly inspiring. Combining his finance background with an unwavering passion for startups, he has made a name for himself in the industry. Before founding Forent, he excelled as a Unit Head at AXA Philippines, mastering financial planning and client relationships. Jayvee's entrepreneurial spirit even led him to establish his own car trading company, which laid the foundation for the creation of Forent.But Jayvee's success story doesn't stop there. From a young age, he embraced determination and a "can-do" attitude. At just 21 years old, he became the youngest national restaurant manager at Adobo Nation. It's safe to say that Jayvee is a true innovator and a force to be reckoned with.

Earvin Ang is Co-Founder and President of Aqwire which empowers property developers and brokers to access the global real estate investors market to increase their sales at premium margins. Aqwire also helps buyers get access to properties overseas via its listing and mortgage loans platform. Previously serving as President/CFO at Qwikwire, he built a payment and real estate platform from scratch. With over 5,000 different founders, executives, VCs, and startup enthusiasts already on board, Earvin is continuing to grow a culture of innovation and drive forward vital developments in the industry.Investors of AQWIRE include Steve Melhuish, Spiral Ventures, Vulpes Investment Management, Betatron Venture Group and Gentree Fund.

Paul is the Chief of Business Development at Aqwire, an international payments company for businesses. He played a key role in building systems in place to bring the company from ground zero all the way to Pre-Series B. From fundraising, building compliance frameworks, and expanding the international payments infrastructures Paul continues to help bring the mission forward of building a global payments system.

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In addition Paul also serves as an adviser and angel investor in early stage startups. He is currently an adviser to Chatgenie, helping with fundraising and strategy.

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His first journey into startups started in college, where he built a startup-focused student organization and built his first startup, where he made his first exit.

Joshua Arvin "Arvs" Lat, CTO and AWS Machine Learning Hero, shares his practical expertise in machine learning, engineering, and cybersecurity as an international speaker and author of multiple books, including Machine Learning Engineering on AWS and "Building and Automating Penetration Testing Labs in the Cloud"

Arvs is the CTO of NuWorks Interactive Labs, Inc. He previously served as the CTO of 3 Australian-owned companies and also served as the Director for Software Development and Engineering for multiple e-commerce startups in the past. Years ago, he and his team won 1st place in a global cybersecurity competition with their published research paper. As an AWS Machine Learning Hero, he has been sharing his knowledge in several international conferences to discuss practical strategies on machine learning, engineering, security, and management. He is also the author of the books "Machine Learning with Amazon SageMaker Cookbook", "Machine Learning Engineering on AWS", and "Building and Automating Penetration Testing Labs in the Cloud".  The last book is expected to be released by November 2023.