President

Francisco Dennis “Den” Manzano is the Convenor and President of the Manila Angel Investors Network Inc. (MAIN). He is also the President and CEO of Techtitan Technology Inc. President of Polaristitans Philippines Inc., Director of Pacificfortia Marine Technologies Inc., Director of Kerubin Capital Pte. Ltd., and a Board Trustee of the American Association of the Philippines.

Mr. Manzano completed the Executive Education Program of the London Business School, University of London in 2005. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree, Major in Business Administration from the University of Santo Tomas. He finished his primary and secondary education at the Ateneo De Manila University, Philippines.

Trustee

Tina co-founded two travel tech companies; led the founding team of two airlines; and managed commercial and marketing at Lufthansa and IHG. She has diverse experience growing B2B and B2C early- and mid-stage companies, driving market expansion in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong & Macau. Tina has led, financed, grown and sold web-focused startups.

Currently, she leads Avaya Ventures, an advisory firm in travel technology, aviation and scaling up businesses in Southeast Asia. She is also a co-founder of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce in Singapore. At Manila Angel Investors' Network, she is a board member and committee chair of Women In Investing.

Treasurer

Lionel Victor L. Belen is the Executive Director at First Asia Venture Capital Inc, the holding company and private investment office of Team First Asia. Among the Team First Asia companies he concurrently serves as Executive Director of Fastech Synergy Philippines, a non-listed public technology company involved in power electronics. He is also Executive Director of Asset Growth Inc, the property planning, development, and management company of Team First Asia, which focuses on industrial, commercial, and tourism properties in the provinces of Laguna, Tarlac, Bataan, and Batangas. He is a member of the board of directors of FAITH Colleges (First Asia Institute of Technology and Humanities), an institution of higher learning and research and a center of development recognized by the commission for higher education for information technology located in Tanauan, Batangas. He is also the founder of Brainsparks, the first founder-focused startup incubator in the Philippines. The incubator, which was established in 2015, selects up to 20 promising high impact technology companies and their founders to support through its incubation program called the Brainsparks 20. Brainsparks also co-organizes the largest premier international startup and innovation focused business conference and business matching event in the Philippines, called Ignite.

He graduated cum laude from the Ateneo de Manila University with two majors, in History and in Economics, and a minor in Japanese studies, and he also received the special departmental award for History when he graduated in 2011.

Honorary Trustee

Quenby is the Executive Director of MAIN and is an Honorary Trustee of the Board. She was an investment banker for 11 years before embarking on her own interior and visual design studio and launching her beverage distribution business. She is committed to grow MAIN's membership base and connect them with promising homegrown early-stage companies. She is determined to learn and practice gender-diversified and impact investing in order to expand market opportunities and drive a positive change. Her goal is to contribute to a better Philippine startup ecosystem.

Quenby comes with a unique blend of entrepreneurship, enterprise and investor experience. She is committed to nurturing MAIN's continued growth, enriching relationships with our strategic partners and ensuring we all help build a world-class Philippine start-up ecosystem.

Trustee

Rene Benitez is an experienced wholesale investor and businessman. He is a former investment banker with extensive financial services experience, having served as a CEO of a leading independent investment bank and of a Euromoney/Asiamoney-rated stockbroking operation. Rene co-founded MAIN to which he remains deeply committed. Apart from his interest in startups, he has also either founded or co-founded numerous successful organizations in varied industries such as financial services, commercial real estate, automotive trading, utilities infrastructure and digital media. Rene has considerable experience and knowledge in corporate development, mergers & acquisitions, capital markets, and other methods of company capital raising. He has extensive international contacts and good knowledge of corporate governance best practices serving as Chairman, Vice Chair, or board member in numerous local and international organizations

Trustee

Sophia E. Chua is the Chief Financial Officer and a director of Standard Insurance Co., Inc. She sits on the board of companies in the BPO and manufacturing companies. Trained in accounting, Sophia's work experience spans auditing, investment banking, private banking and finance. She holds a BS Accountancy in DLSU Philippines and an MBA in Kellogg School of Management Northwestern University.

Trustee

Andrew Escaler is the EVP for Pasudeco, an investment company with interests in the electric, water, real estate, waste management, and traffic regulation industry. Pasudeco aims to reduce human impact on the planet and simplify life through its investments by being the most helpful shareholder a company could ask for. An entrepreneur himself, Andrew has experienced many of the headaches familiar to founders and so seeks to be the kind of shareholder he wishes to have. A curious and progressive individual, Andrew is a strong believer in the circular economy and positive externalities. He also believes that both managers and investors should experience their businesses as both customers and bystanders. Andrew looks forward to the day where everyone can enjoy fresh air, the shade of a tree, and clean bodies of water, and will help anyone trying to reach that same goal in whatever capacity he can.

Trustee

James Gundry was born and brought up in Scotland before moving to Hong Kong in his mid 20s. He has been involved in the executive recruitment and background screening industry for more than 25 years in Asia. He was one of the founding shareholders of "Quest" (now Robert Walters), "Quest Research" (acquired by First Advantage), "Integrascreen" (acquired by Thomson Reuters/Worldcheck) and "Dataflow" (an EQT Private Equity investment).

Trustee

Claus is a German citizen and holds an MBA from IMD Lausanne and a master’s degree as electrical & communications engineer (MSEE) with specialization in communication networks design and operation for both land and space-based telecommunication systems.

Claus is a global citizen with 30 years of business experience in C-level position and as founder of companies across Asia (Singapore, Philippines, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan), he also serves as advisor on multiple corporate boards.

By bridging strategy, technology, investment needs and market requirements, Claus reached significant achievements in market share development for entry players in Asia.

As a serial entrepreneur in the tech space, Claus founded 10 start-ups. His latest venture is a global ecosystem builder and start-up accelerator with offices in Palo Alto, Boston, New York, Berlin, Munich, Singapore and Tokyo.

Corporate Secretary

Raymond Clarence Yu Rodis is the founder of Digest PH, a legal technology startup helping startups find legal services and the Chief Executive Officer of Startup Law.

He was the corporate lawyer of Pasudeco, an impact fund that invests an average ticket size of $100,000 - $500,000 in Philippine, US, and Singaporean startups. He is the corporate secretary of Manila Angel Investors Network, the largest angel investor network in the Philippines. He is the legal service provider of the Philippine Development Foundation (PhilDev), advising 20 early stage and 6 growth stage startups in their cohort. He represents Philippine, Singaporean, Australian, and Spanish startups. He was previously an associate lawyer at Santos Parungao Aquino Santos Law, a full service law firm in Ortigas. He received his Juris Doctor of Law degree from the University of the Philippines College of Law and his BA Public Administration degree, cum laude from the same university where he was student council chairperson of his college.

Trustee

Malaya A. Laraya, MBA, CIS, CSR, RFP has had over three decades of experience working in high levels across multiple industries such as equity investing, managed funds, real estate, banking and insurance. He is one of the founders of the Ronin Group of Companies, which aims to address the shortfalls in the financial environment and raise the level of financial literacy of Filipinos through education and provision of alternative investment options. This vocation towards education extends to his concurrent roles as Ateneo de Manila University's first Entrepreneur-in-Residence and as host to a number of podcasts covering grassroots innovation in the Philippines. He is currently the Chair of MAIN's Screening Committee, responsible for choosing the top three startups to pitch to MAIN's quarterly membership meetings

Trustee

Roman is an experienced C-level executive with extensive business development, governance, operations, treasury and commercial banking experience. He is in his fourth decade of developing business ecosystems as a strategic consultant to a regional accelerator and a growing roster of tech-enabled firms looking to explore the dynamic Philippine market. He is an independent board member of ATRAM, a Fellow at the Institute of Corporate Directors, an active participant in MAIN's Screening Committee and a co-founder of a healthcare startup, Biologic Life Sciences.

Roman co-founded and led Aboitiz InfraCapital (AIC), the fifth strategic business leg of the Aboitiz group. He Established Aboitiz Equity Venture’s business development division and spearheaded the conglomerate’s venture into the Public Private Partnership space. Aside from building up and running the Asian regional treasury function for CEMEX, Roman also spent a decade as a banker with ING Barings and Citibank.

Roman has an MBA from the University of Virginia and has an economics degree from Colby College.