Local Woman Technopreneur

Maria Ressa

Maria Ressa is the founder and CEO ofrappler, a popular mews website in thePhilippines. Even
Before rappler, Maria Ressa hasbeen a journalist is Asia for more than 25 years,most of them as
CNN’s bureau chief in Manila theJakarta. In 2005, she headed the Philippines’largest
multiplatform news operations, ABS-CBNNews and Current Affairs. She also taught in heralma
mater, Princeton university, as well s theUniversity of the Philippines. She authored “Seedsof
Terror” and “From Bin Ladden to Facebook”.

Ressa was born in Manila and grew upthere until the age of 10, when her parentsrelocated to
Toms River, New Jersey. There, shespent the rest of her childhood and adolescence, where she
graduated from TomsRiver High School North. Ressa studied molecular biology and theater as
anundergraduate at Princeton University, where she graduated cum laude with a B.A.degree in
English and certificates in theater and dance in 1986. For her degree,Ressa completed a 77-page
long senior thesis titled "Sagittarius". She then wasawarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study
political theater at the University of thePhilippines Diliman.

Ressa's first job was at government station PTV 4. She then co-foundedindependent production
company Probe in 1987, and simultaneously served asCNN's bureau chief in Manila until 1995.
She then ran CNN's Jakarta bureau from1995 to 2005. As CNN's lead investigative reporter in
Asia, she specialized ininvestigating terrorist networks. She became an author-in-residence at
theInternational Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR) ofNanyang
Technological University's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies inSingapore.

From 2004, Ressa headed the news division of ABS-CBN, while also writing forCNN and The Wall
Street Journal. She left the company in 2010, after deciding not torenew her contract.

She is the author of two books concerning the rise of terrorism in SoutheastAsia: Seeds of
Terror: An Eyewitness Account of Al-Qaeda's Newest Center (2011)and From Bin Laden to
Facebook 10 Days of Abduction, 10 Years of Terrorism (2013).

She established the online news site, Rappler in 2012. It started as aFacebook page named
MovePH in August 2011 and later evolved into a completewebsite on January 1, 2012. The site
has since been a major news portal in thePhilippines, receiving numerous local and international
awards.

Tina Amper
Tina is the founder of TechTalks.ph, a non-profit,independent community of business,
technology,and startup enthusiasts. TechTalks host meetups &events to facilitate networking
and organizeworkshops to foster innovative ideas and acquirebetter skills once or twice every
month. It is acommunity of 1100+ people today in Cebu, Bohol,Davao, Iloilo and will soon reach
to other cities of

I am a startup ecosystem builder, innovation program manager, product manager, and social
entrepreneur with 15+ years of experience that includes extensive international work and
collaborations with entrepreneurs, corporations, government agencies, and events
organizations to build global tech communities. In 2012 I founded the nonprofit TechTalks.ph
which I grew to 10 chapters in Philippines with thousands of members and have organized the
international tech/startup conference, Geeks On A Beach. I have also contributed to several
startup conferences and events for partners that include 500 Startups, Geeks On A Plane, STAC
Silicon Valley, Techstars, CreatePhilippines, and WorldStartupReport.

My areas of expertise include Program Management, Community Building, Conference

Production, Business Planning, Product Marketing, Digital Marketing, Market Research, and
Management. I have advised multiple government agencies and corporations on innovation and
startup development initiatives, and I am passionate about building thriving and sustainable
ecosystems that foster collaboration and success.

In addition to my experience, I earned an MBA at Pepperdine and completed my engineering

undergrad at University of San Carlos (Philippines). My language skills include English, Filipino,
and Cebuano.

Rachel L. De Villa, BSCS’13

Rachel is a full-stack software engineer and social entrepreneur. She specializes in creating
scalable and sustainable innovations that achieve social missions. At 23, she built, together with
co-founders Ruel Amparo and Everett Ubiadas, an award-winning finance- agricultural start-up
in the Philippines, Cropital. Cropital is the first crowdfunding platform that allows individuals to
place low-cost sustainable agricultural investments which in turn enables poor farmers to have
access to scalable and sustainable financing. This scheme is aimed at promoting inclusive
growth, reducing poverty, and ensuring food security. To date, her team has now reached over
90,000 investors and supported over 800 smallholder farmers.

She has been awarded and gained recognition as Woman in Business Startup of the Year in
ASEAN, Cosmopolitan Magazine’s Fun Fearless Female, Jollibee’s Yumbassador, and the
youngest entrepreneur to be included in the inaugural Forbes “30 under 30 Asia” list. She was
likewise a recipient of the Creamsilk Women Empowerment Scholarship.

Social technopreneur and youngest entrepreneur of Forbes Magazine’s 30 under 30 list

Engr. Rachel De Villa, CTO and founder of CROPITAL discussing about agripreneurship and
sharing her journey into building her own company that aims to bring low-cost and sustainable
financing to our local farmers. A 24 year-old software engineer, an achiever and a young
entrepreneur that believes that HAPPINESS leads to SUCCESS.
#Empower2.0

#Agripreneurship

Hiyasmin 'Yas" Neri-Soyao

Co-founder and CEO, Shoppertainment Live

Hiyasmin Neri-Soyao follows her curiosity, which took her from hosting a TV shopping channel
to producing and managing her own. Her company, Shoppertainment Live, is the Philippines’
first full-production livestreaming agency that enables big advertising agencies, multinational
companies and e-commerce giants to properly sell their products. An instant hit, it now works
with more than 90 brands and recently expanded its studios to an 11,000 sqft space.

Nikki Sevilla

Founder and president, EcoNest Philippines

Nikki Sevilla wants to give everyone the chance to use packaging that’s kind to the planet. She
aims to alleviate the use of plastic through her company EcoNest Philippines, which she
established in 2018. It distributes unique, technologically advanced, eco-friendly packaging
products, including bags made from cassava, which are sold to business owners to maximise
use, as well as edible straws and food storage boxes made from sugarcane.

Global

Olivia Jingshu Ji
Olivia Jingshu Ji is the co-founder and COO of EventBank. With extensive experience in the field
of marketing and internet industries, Olivia has helped develop several technology businesses
and has also worked as a senior business leader in a multinational enterprise.

She is also the Founding Director at Beijing Hefeng Art Charity Foundation and the President of
Women in Leadership China.

BEF2019 Speaker: Olivia Jingshu Ji

Olivia Jingshu Ji is an excellent business leader and serial entrepreneur, and the recipient of “The
Youngest COO in China” award from Business Week Magazine. She has also gained similar
recognition from other global social media. She has abundant management experience in the
innovation of technology and product development, market creation, capital operation, and
more.

Olivia was recognized as one of the “Global Top 10 Women Entrepreneurs” at the 2017 Global
Conference on Women and Entrepreneurship founded by Jack Ma. As the founder and President
of EventBank, she has guided EventBank to become an outstanding global ToB SaaS company
with ToB clients across 50 countries, 7 regional offices around the world, and excellent teams
consisting of technical expertise from 17 countries. In 2017, EventBank won the “Greater
Washington Innovation Awards” hosted by the most authoritative IT research firm—Gartner.

Join us at the Business Events Forum 2019, 23rd October at MITEC KL, click on www.beforum.my
to register!

Jehan Ara

Jehan Ara is the President of the Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT and ITES (P@sha).
Jehan has been very active in building the P@sha brand and working on getting local and
international partners.

She is more than a technopreneur, she is a motivator, a social activist and strong propagator of
spreading the power of information and communication technologies beyond the traditional
business.
Jehan Ara, a woman who is not just a successful entrepreneur but also a mentor in a country like
Pakistan. Born in Karachi and raised in Hong Kong, Ara is now the president of PASHA. She also
runs The Nest IO which is a tech incubator. The Nest IO has global partners such as Google for
entrepreneurs, Samsung and a supporting grant from the U.S State Department.

We were just getting used to the internet when she moved back here in the 90s. She met with
big companies and tried to convince them to get an online presence. She got traction with time
but at first all her ideas were shot down. Later, she decided to join PASHA (Pakistan Software
Houses Association for IT & ITES). At PASHA, she started to actively advocate for technical
developments in Pakistan. Moreover, Jehan Ara’s dedication to PASHA made her quit her own
company. She strongly believes that an association like PASHA has the means to bring Pakistani
youth fruitful economical opportunities.

Jehan Ara launched The Nest IO, a Paksitani tech incubator after she became president in 2001
of PASHA. She was rewarded this honorary position at the time due to her unbiased behavior
and interpersonal skills. She turned it all around and made this association a training
organization.

nest i/o jehanara

Picture from Nest I/O

The Nest IO offers budding entrepreneurs the space to grow and connect with like-minded
individuals. It is a place where Jehan Ara promotes creativity and mentors people in any way
possible. The Nest offers internal and external incubation with no equity. Furthermore, they
provide market outreach, business & technology curriculum, access to investors and thirty of
the Google for Entrepreneurs Hubs worldwide. It already has ten batches of portfolio companies
including names like Sheops, Find My Adventure, Tutor Bay, Wonder Tree and Mandi Express.

Jehan Ara – The woman who does it all

There is no one single routine that she follows. She is a writer, mentor, speaker and has an
advisory position in the boards universities like IBA and Habib. The Nest IO is a place of
happiness for her, even the lock down could not stop her from visiting it. In a conversation she
said, she drives alone to her empty office twice a week and just comes here to think in her
beautiful and colorful office.

Around the office, Jehan Ara is known as the ‘Big Bird.’ She always gives credit to her parents for
her humble personality and determination to work hard. Ara does not care for the titles, she
comes and sits around with her team and strikes conversations with everyone. Her daily days
include a lot of mentoring, listening and advising young people. She arranges a lot of events for
the entrepreneurs to connect with people in the industry and keep their motivation afloat.

A living legacy

For Jehan Ara, her passion only grows. She has traveled around the globe representing PASHA
and The Nest. Everyday, she strives to make it possible for the youth to openly discuss and
critique ideas. She says, we are stuck in our industrial mindsets and refuse to look beyond it. She
advises a complete review of all policies in Pakistan dealing with IT. Ara wants the change to
come directly from the PM’s office with advice from the stakeholders from business, technology
and civil society.
She is not just a woman who does it all; but she is also someone who has always been
advocating for women’s rights. She wants to establish a network of professional women where
they can connect and mentor each other. Jehan Ara wants to connect the working women with
distant employers around the world. She is looking to create more opportunities for women
especially in IT.

Hooi Ling Tan

Hooi Ling Tan is the Co-founder of a Malaysian based mobile app called GrabTaxi. She is
revolutionizing the transportation industry in Malaysia.

She is very hands-on with GrabTaxi, she oversees the critical pillars of brand operations and is
involved with business strategy and growth, analytics, and customer experience.

Fransiska Hadiwidjana

Fransiska Hadiwidjana is the Founder and CEO of Prelo, a C2C online shopping app, which is
based on using environmentally friendly technology and community empowerment.

She is an Informatics Engineering graduate of Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) and silver
medalist International Junior Science Olympiad (IJSO) 2004.

Alexis Horowitz-Burdick

Starting a business can be unpredictable and full of risks. No one knows this better than Alexis,
founder of the online cosmetics store Luxola. Founded in 2011, there were times when she
could not pay herself or her team, and there was no predictability in its success at the time.

Fortunately, she and her team persevered, and in 2014, Luxola raised millions of dollars to fuel
its expansion into Southeast Asia. Today, her startup has operations in Singapore, Indonesia and
Thailand with shipping to Hong Kong, UAE, Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines and Australia.

In 2015, her company was acquired by Sephora, and she is now the Managing Director at
Sephora Digital SEA.