Four Filipinos named Young Global Leaders of 2014

A president of a foundation focused on technology incubation, a business reporter for a national broadsheet, a co-founder of a foundation promoting the welfare of children in rural areas, and a Malacañang official were among the Young Global Leaders (YGLs) of 2014 recently recognized by the Geneva-based non-profit organization World Economic Forum (WEF).

“The World Economic Forum is beginning to recognize a lot of Filipino leaders not only in the field of business but also in the fields of social work and communication,” said 2010 YGL awardee Winston Damarillo at a dinner meeting with the media last Friday.

"These four YGLs were selected among thousands of candidates all over the world," he added.

This year's awardees were Earl Valencia, president and co-founder of the IdeaSpace Foundation Inc. (left, in photo with Damarillo); Doris Dumlao, senior business reporter of the Philippine Daily Inquirer; Ayesha Vera-Yu, co-founder and chief executive officer of Advancement for Rural Kids; and Julia Abad, chief of the Presidential Management Staff.

The four Filipinos were among 214 YGLs honored this year from 66 countries across the world.

“The Forum of Young Global Leaders is very, very structured when it comes to the screening process. They have a candidate pool of about 1,000 to 5,000 a year. The WEF also hires the service of premier recruitment firm Heidrick & Struggles to screen the nominees,” Damarillo said.

Valencia, Dumlao, Vera-Yu, and Abad now join the community of more than 900 YGLs around the world.

Who is a Young Global Leader?

On its website, WEF said that to be a YGL, a candidate must have achieved success before the age of 40; demonstrated commitment to serve society at large; recognized record of extraordinary achievement, substantial leadership experience and a clear indication that this will continue for the rest of their career; and impeccable public record and good standing in their community.

“The Forum of Young Global Leaders aims to build a community of like-minded individuals that are committed to changing the world – people who are not limited by 'what can be done' but are inspired by 'what should be done'. Members of the YGL community are some of the most inspiring, nice, people you will meet and I am proud to be acknowledged as a peer to any of them,” Valencia said in a press statement.

This year's YGLs

Valencia, who is also the head of the Corporate Innovation Department of Smart Communications, Inc., returned to the country in 2011 after working as business incubation manager for technology giant Cisco in Silicon Valley. He also worked as senior systems engineer at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, one of the largest aerospace companies in the world.

He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, summa cum laude from Boston University, a master's degree in Systems Engineering from Cornell University, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

On March 5, 2012, Valencia, together with Meralco Chief Information Officer Marthyn Cuan, launched IdeaSpace Foundation, which is now considered the largest privately-backed multi-industry incubator in the Philippines and has since invested in 18 local start-up tech companies.

Dumlao, meanwhile, graduated with honors from the University of the Philippines with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. Her expertise includes business journalism with a focus on banking and capital markets.

Throughout 16 years of working as a reporter of PDI, she has received 19 journalism awards. In 2011, Dumlao was also named one of the “20 Most Influential Women in the Philippines” by search engine Google. She is also a staunch advocate of good governance, transparency and financial literacy, which led her to co-found the Journalists United Under Transparency, Accountability and Good Governance (JUST).

Vera-Yu, who now lives in New York City, used to work with banking giant BNP Paribas from 1997 to 2009 before she co-founded the New York-based ARK Foundation in December 2008. The charity focuses on improving the health and education of children in rural communities in developing countries, including the Philippines.

She received an MBA from Columbia University’s Executive Program and a BA in Biology and Chemistry from Mt. Holyoke College, Massachusetts, United States, the ARK website said.

Prior to her post as chief of the Presidential Management Staff, Abad was a program officer of the Asia Pacific Philanthropy Consortium and was also a consultant of the Gearing up Internet Literacy and Access for Students or "GILAS" program.

GILAS is a recent beneficiary of Google Grants, which offers free advertising space to select non-profit organizations on google.com. She also served as a legislative staffer at the Senate.

Abad completed her BA degree at the Ateneo de Manila University and earned her master's degree in Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government as a Fulbright scholar.

The four awardees from the Philippines join David Karp, founder and CEO of microblogging platform Tumblr, Karl-Johan Persson, president and CEO of Swedish fast-fashion giant Hennes & Mauritz AB, or H&M, and Hollywood actress Charlize Theron in the YGL class of 2014.

Some of the past Filipino YGL awardees are social entrepreneur Illac Diaz; Senators Bam Aquino, Loren Legarda and Francis “Chiz” Escudero; Karen Davila; Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas; and PDI president Alexandra Prieto-Romualdez.

Among the most notable past YGL awardees are Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Dropbox co-founder Andrew Houston, Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio, and CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. — JDS, GMA News