Filipinos in Forbes 30 Under 30
FIVE FILIPINOS made it to this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 list of entrepreneurs, leaders, and changemakers in
Asia (and Australia) under the age of 30.
The Filipinos included in the fifth edition of the list
are Francis Plaza, founder of e-payment processing
platform PayMongo; Louise Mabulo, founder of the
Cacao Project; Breech Asher Harani, multimedia artist at Alexandrite Pictures; gymnast Carlos Yulo; and
skateboarder Margielyn Didal.
“Amidst challenging times and global uncertainty, the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia Class of 2020 features bright and innovative leaders who are ready and equipped to adapt to whatever the future may hold,”
Forbes said in a statement.
The five Filipinos join the 300-strong list
of honorees sorted in 10 categories: The Arts
(Art & Style, Food & Drink); Entertainment & Sports; Finance & Venture Capital; Media, Mar
keting & Advertising; Retail & E-Commerce;
Enterprise Technology; Industry, Manufacturing & Energy; Healthcare & Science; Social Entrepreneurs and Consumer Technology.
“This year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list-makers inspire optimism in what is promising to be a tough year ahead. They are a resilient
and energetic bunch who are facing challenges headon and actively working for a future that matches their aspirations,” Rana Wehbe, Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia
editor, said in the release.
“Young women under 21 especially stand out in our
2020 list: From Malaysia’s hijab-wearing wrestler to Bangladesh’s first female comedian and a social entrepreneur
helping farmers in the Philippines improve their livelihoods
— these fierce game-changers are shattering gender, age and cultural stereotypes across industries,” she added.
Francis Plaza is the 26-year-old founder of PayMon
go, an online payment processing platform that raised
$2.7 million in seed funding from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, San Francisco-based venture capital firm Founders Fund, and fintech unicorn Stripe.
Prior to PayMongo, Mr. Plaza was a software
engineer at Oracle and co-founded online
marketplace Muber. He entered the Mas
sachusetts Institute of Technology at 16 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in
computer science.
Louise Emmanuelle Mabulo is the
21-year-old founder of The Cacao Project, an initiative that provides farmers in the Philippines with cacao plant seedlings and teaches them how to responsibly and
sustainably produce cacao.