Six Filipinos made it to this year’s prestigious Forbes “30 Under 30 Asia” List, which recognizes disruptors, innovators, and entrepreneurs who are below 30 years of age across the region. On this prestigious list are Stephanie Sy, Bretman Sacayanan, Carlo Delantar, Patrick Lynch, Archie Oclos and Miko Aspiras.
Every year Forbes honors 30 individuals in 10 categories. Here are their backgrounds and why Forbes picked these Pinoy individuals to be on this celebrated list:
Stephanie Sy, 29-founder, Thinking Machines. Sy founded Thinking Machines in 2015, a data science startup designed to make artificial intelligence systems work for humans
“Founder Stephanie Sy and her team want to make companies more effective by encouraging them to make data driven decisions,” Forbes said.
Bretman Sacayanan, 19-vlogger, Bretman Rock. Born in the Philippines and relocated to Hawaii at the age of seven, Sacayanan currently has over eight million followers on Instagram and almost two million on YouTube.
“The beauty vlogger is known not only for his makeup tutorials, but also his often humorous views on life,” Forbes noted.
Carlo Delantar, 26-country director, Waves for Water. Delantar heads the Philippine operations of Waves for Water, an international non-profit organization which provides clean water to those in need.
“With only a small team, Delantar enlists the help of travelers there to distribute water filtration systems. So far, they have handed out some 10,000 water filters, helping one million Filipinos to access clean water,” according to Forbes.
Patrick Lynch, 28-co-founder, First Circle. Lynch is an Irish native who co-founded Philippine-based fintech company First Circle. It provides small to medium enterprises (SMEs) with finance, particularly those having a difficult time securing capital.
According to Forbes, First Circle has already loaned millions of dollars to businesses in the Philippines.
Archie Oclos, 28-artist. Oclos is an artist from the University of the Philippines who tackles sociopolitical issues in the country.
“The 28-year-old Filipino artist has criticized the country’s war on drugs through his murals-depicting President Rodrigo Duterte with a crown made of guns-as well as the treatment of its indigenous people,” Forbes said.
Miko Aspiras, 29,-chef. Aspiras started baking at the age of 11, and had his eye on the culinary industry since. He started as a commis chef at the Shangri-La in Manila, and has worked in a number hotels such as Resorts World Manila and Raffles. He also started his own food group Tasteless, under which he co-owns seven restaurant concepts.
According to Forbes “30 Under 30 Asia” List editor Rana Wehbe, this year’s list is made up of millennials who take risks and tackle issues that matter to their generation.
“For this list in particular, we were looking for individuals who had really made a difference in their field,” she said.
“To help us select the most deserving people from more than 2,000 impressive nominations, we employed the help of industry-specific judges to vet each and every one of the entries,” Wehbe noted.
Among the judges are business magnates such as Allan Zaman and Hiroshi Mikitani for the retail and e-commerce category, and fashion designer Vivienne Tam and singer Kris Wu for the arts and entertainment and sports categories.
Other judges include tech entrepreneurs Sonny Vu of Fossil and S.D Shibulal of Infosys, and tech investors Kai-fu Lee of Sinovation and Anna Fang of ZhenFund in the finance and venture capital category.
According to Forbes, this year’s list includes individuals from 24 countries across Asia-Pacific-including representatives from Azerbaijan and North Korea for the first time.
Last year, five Filipinos were on the list which included entrepreneurs and individuals who excelled in their various fields.
