Who We Are

Meet Team Philippines

Meet our Mentors

Our Team

We are team of passionate and committed individuals with bold ideas to help entrepreneurs

We bring together over 20 years of experience across various fields of social entrepreneurship, backed by the combined expertise of mentors and advisors within the social enterprise ecosystem.

Priya Thachadi

Co-founder and CEO

Your Education and Experience?

I have a bachelors degree in Business and Advanced Financial Accounting and a Masters Degree in Journalism from India, a Master’s degree in International Relations and Development from the University of Warwick in the UK.

I have spent the last 15 years in international development, working in Journalism, Human Rights and Public Policy, before moving to the social enterprise sector. I served as the Head of Incubatee Support and Human Capital at Villgro India, one of the oldest and largest impact incubators in the world, where I led post-investment support for early-stage ventures and pioneered Villgro’s Mentoring and technical assistance initiatives. In 2017, I co-founded Unlock Impact, a social impact consulting firm, that partners with other orginisations to scale solutions that tackle poverty. Around the same time, I set up Villgro Philippines in Manila.

What you do at Villgro?

As CEO, I am responsible for the organization’s strategy and long-term direction. My role is to ensure that my team is challenged, inspired and fulfilling their potential. My focus is to build key partnerships and design incubation programs that support early stage impact entrepreneurs develop and implement their strategy and help find the right resources and opportunities to scale their solutions. I am constantly hatching plans to pathologically collaborate with other ecosystem players with similar values. Ultimately, I am carving out Villgro’s role in helping create successful Impact Enterprises in the Philippines.

What makes me good at what I do?

Moral Imagination.
A pathological drive to collaborate.
Resilience and patience.

Your Hobbies / Passion ?

I am passionate about politics and the state of the world. You can find me striking up a discussion around global politics every chance I get.

I enjoy exploring the beautiful beaches in the Philippines and I love traveling to explore new cities and countries.

Read and keep learning!

Angelo Santiago

Program Manager

LinkedIn

Your Education and Experience?

I studied Applied Corporate Management at De La Salle University and have experience working with both multi-national corporations and small-to-medium businesses. I founded the Red Cross Council of DLSU when I was still in the university and have since worked with multiple development organizations and government agencies on a range of projects around sustainability, youth and civic engagement, and disaster risk reduction.

What you do at Villgro?

As one of the program managers, I am responsible for the implementation of assigned programs. I led the CSO-SEED Business and Investment Readiness Programme in partnership with the British Council and co-funded by the European Union. Through that programme I along with my team setup and trained six local incubators over the past year and helped them select and support a portfolio of 36 social enterprises. I also work as a portfolio manager supporting our high-potential impact enterprises within the Agriculture and Employment sectors.

Your Hobbies / Passion ?

I am fond of hiking, supporting development projects, and connecting people.
Knowing there are people that still need help is what gets me up in the morning.
I have a strong interest in data analytics and product design and intend to pursue a masters degree in Industrial Design Engineering in the Netherlands or the United Kingdom.

Johanna Brillantes (Yo)

Program Manager

LinkedIn

Your Education and Experience?

Before joining Villgro, I worked for a fintech startup for over two years empowering Filipinos to access financial services. I have been with organizations focusing on impact since my college days. While studying business at university, I became an active member of an international organization that develops leadership among the youth.

What you do at Villgro?

I work as a Program Manager and manage the incubation support for entrepreneurs of our healthcare and clean energy portfolio. I also leads the recently launched accelerator program that supports two agriculture cooperatives in Benguet and Lanao del Norte in growing their businesses.

Additionally I manage events, our regular Happy Hours and Talk Impact events, a networking event for the Philippine impact entrepreneurship community.

Your Hobbies / Passion ?

I love creating things. In my free time, I sew and paint. My recent projects include sewing bags and painting on them.

Carlo Valle

Program Management Support

LinkedIn

Your Education and Experience?

Carlo is a Canadian Volunteer from CUSO International, an international non-governmental organization dedicated to reducing poverty and inequality in over 22 developing countries. As an advocate for responsibly stewarding our shared and living planet, he believes building the social entrepreneurship ecosystem can better facilitate a more just and mutually beneficial world for everybody.

He supports Villgro Philippines in program management, research and development, fundraising, events management, and communications.

Geetha N

Communication Specialist

LinkedIn

Your Education and Experience?

I have over 15 years of experience in Public Relations and Corporate Communications. I have a Bachelors Degree in Science and a Masters Degree in Journalism.

What you do at Villgro?

I work as a communication specialist.

Your Hobbies / Passion ?

I am passionate Toastmaster
A Yoga Instructor.

Meet Our Mentors

Love Gregorie Perez

Director, xchange

Your Education and Experience?

I am currently the Director at xChange, an impact investor and incubator for early stage social enterprises in the Philippines. As a mentor, I not only work closely with entrepreneurs in the xChange portfolio, I also mentor enterprises in Villgro’s portfolio; the British Council CSO SEED program; the Tuklas Visayas Innovation Lab; and many others. I regularly meet with (social) entrepreneurs for formal and informal learning and feedbacking sessions. Prior to joining xChange, I served as Executive Director of a social enterprise ‘Gifts and Graces Fair Trade Foundation’.

I have worked in the field of social development, innovation, and entrepreneurship for the last 15 years and I am strongly committed to social equity and poverty eradication through entrepreneurship, education, and culture. I am proud to say that I have had the honor of being named an ‘Asia Society Asia 21 Philippines Fellow’, Class of 2007, in recognition of being one of the Philippines’ young leaders in social development. I was also a Supporting Women Leaders Scholar of the IE Brown Executive MBA. I graduated from the program in 2013 and was invited to join the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society.

Prabh Singh

Investment & Growth Advisor

LinkedIn

Your Education and Experience?

I have a decade of business development, commercial negotiation and strategic investment experience in the financial services, energy (LNG) and infrastructure industries. I have successfully built lasting partnerships with global investors and customers across Europe and Asia and raised significant new capital.

I have led diverse teams in multiple locations and am a firm believer in leveraging technology solutions to support rapid organizational growth. I am passionate about helping businesses articulate and execute their growth strategy. Be it in the early stages of achieving product-market fit or in a turnaround where rapid, decisive action with limited information is called for.

I have a degree in Economics & Mathematics from Colby College and an MBA with Distinction from INSEAD, France. I am an alumnus of the United World Colleges movement committed to uniting people for peace and a sustainable future.

What you do at Villgro?

I challenge entrepreneurs to think through their business model and develop focused strategies for growth. This includes working with them on tactical customer acquisition, creating detailed and robust financial models and implementing scalable operational processes to support growth. In return, I am inspired by the energy and resilience of impact entrepreneurs.

Your Hobbies / Passion ?

Exploring new places (History and culture)
Technologist (early-adopter)

Carlo Almendral

Your Education and Experience?

I moved to Manila in December 2017 to start a school teaching women data science and artificial intelligence engineering for free. I moved from San Francisco where I had started several venture-backed technology companies and taught at UC Berkeley and University of San Francisco.

I serve on the board of the United Nations’ World Food Program Innovation Council, For The Women Foundation, and three technology companies.

Olivier Motte

Senior Advisor and Board Member, Edukasyon.ph

Your Education and Experience?

I am a Senior Advisor and Board Member with more than 37 years of International banking experience in Europe and Asia. My focus during the past 14 years has been on mitigating compliance issues, and supporting good and fair business through pragmatic judgement and decisions.

I am based in both the Philippines and France and I am happy to support good causes and social enterprises, such as Edukasyon.ph (https://beta.edukasyon.ph).

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