Archives: Team

Before joining xchange, Rizza was the Corporate Finance Head of the Biolink Pharma and NutraMedica Group of Companies. Her career in finance began as an auditor with Sycip, Gorres, Velayo & Co. After SGV, she took on the role of Finance Controller and Consultant for the USA Subsidiary Cynamid Philippines, the Regional Headquarters of Knoll, and Abbot Laboratories among others. Rizza is a Certified Public Accountant and a SAP Business One consultant.

Prior to joining xchange, Erika was Managing Director of Hapinoy, a social enterprise that works with women micro-entrepreneurs to grow their small village shops (“sari-sari stores”) through training and education, access to capital, and new business opportunities. She served as Regional Director for Asia Pacific of the World Youth Alliance, a UN-affiliated youth organization based in New York, focused on dignity and development. Erika also worked as a Senior Strategy Manager for k2 interactive (now part of Publicis Jimenez Basic), a Manila- based boutique strategy and communications firm, handling key accounts in the FMCG, banking, real estate and logistics industries.

Erika completed her International Diploma Programs in Global Business Management and Marketing from UC Berkeley, as well as an internship with World of Good, a leading US-based social enterprise now with the eBay group. She is an Asia Society Class of 2010 Asia 21 Philippines Fellow, a recipient of the 2015 Freedom for Excellence Award from the World Youth Alliance Asia Pacific and a 2016 Kathryn Hoomkwap Awardee.

Greg joined xchange in September 2014. She was formerly Executive Director of social enterprise Gifts and Graces Fair Trade Foundation.

Prior to xchange, she was Microfinance and Livelihood Manager at Families and Children for Empowerment and Development Foundation, a foundation providing services to poorest of the poor families in Paco and Pandacan. Greg is strongly committed to social equity and poverty eradication through entrepreneurship, education, and culture. Passionate, resourceful, and an accomplished leader with an established international network, Greg possesses a valuable combination of business management skills and a humanistic, social development perspective. She has a wide range of experience in social development and social entrepreneurship including grassroots level organizing, microfinance, financial literacy, production, and research. In business, Greg has demonstrated the ability to lead multi-cultural, cross-functional teams remotely and face-to-face, clarify and crystallize vision, addresses short-term and long-term issues with problem solving and strategic planning, and execute on plan. Greg completed her MBA in 2013 from IE Business School in Madrid and Brown University in Providence. She is an Asia Society Asia 21 Philippines Fellow, Class of 2007.

Nono is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of xchange, an impact-first social enterprise incubator in the Philippines, investing in high potential early-stage social enterprises, while providing full-time mentorship to help them grow and achieve scale.

Nono’s expertise in finance, mobile, technology and enterpreneurship is the culmination of her professional experience as a banker to her life as a start-up founder. Nono’s career began in the field of private equity with the firm Olympus Capital in Hong Kong. Shortly thereafter, she started and co-founded Information Gateway, a mobile value-added services company, which grew to become the Philippine market leader in the mobile VAS industry. Nono graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in Business Administration.

Rico is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of xchange, an impact-first social enterprise incubator in the Philippines, investing in high potential early-stage social enterprises, while providing full-time mentorship to help them grow and achieve scale.

Rico began his career as a philosophy teacher at the Ateneo de Manila University, before becoming a research analyst at Asia Equity, the first foreign-owned investment house in the Philippines. Subsequently, Rico moved to Hong Kong to work at Cazenove (later acquired by JP Morgan), managing a team of analysts to cover banks and insurance companies across Asia. In 2003, Rico returned to the Philippines, and, together with his wife and partners, ran Information Gateway, a pioneering mobile content company that grew to become one of the largest players in the space. Here he gained much practical experience around running and scaling enterprises. In 2009, Rico began to focus his efforts on building the social enterprise sector in the Philippines, and in 2011, founded xchange together with his wife. Rico holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy from the Ateneo de Manila University.