Edith Villanueva
President & COO,Sugar Industry Foundation
Negros Occidental, Philippines
Global FWN100™ '14
Edith Villanueva is the President and COO of the Sugar Industry Foundation Inc. (SIFI). Under her leadership, SIFI has developed and implemented many programs that have improved the quality of life of sugar workers, their families, and their communities, Sugarcane is a significant crop of national interest to the Philippines. It takes care of the entire domestic consumption of Filipinos while also exporting to the US and producing ethanol for fuel and power or energy through the co-generation of sugar mills.
SIFI focuses on the overall growth and well-being of sugar producing and milling areas. The foundation has a number of programs focused on the education, health, housing and livelihood of sugar workers, their dependents and their communities. One of their initiatives is called Tiempo Muerto Projects that included Sugar Road Repair and Vegetable Seeds Dispersal, Food Production and Skills Development, and green Charcoal Production.
In 2009, to alleviate the economic condition of sugar workers in Negros Occidental and Oriental during the off-milling season, SIFI implemented a series of projects to augment their income through temporary employment and skills building and trainings. These projects were in partnership with planters associations and sugar mills in the two provinces.
Maria Ressa
CEO & Executive Editor, Rappler
Pasig City, Philippines
Global FWN100™ '14
Maria Ressa is a Filipino journalist, author, CEO/Founder of Rappler, a reimagining of journalism with technology and social media. After one and 1/2 years, it has become the 3rd top online news site in the Philippines. It is the only media group that's completely digital - in workflows and processes (no traditional media arm), and grew from 12 employees to nearly 100.
Maria was CNN's bureau chief in Manila then Jakarta and was lead investigative report focusing on terrorism in Southeast Asia. In 2005, she headed ABS-CBN News responsible for over 1,000 journalists redefining journalism with traditional broadcast, new media and mobile phone technology for social change. She taught at Princeton University and the University of the Philippines. She authored, "From Bin Laden to Facebook," as part of her work as the Author-in-Residence and Senior Fellow at the International Centre for Political Violence & Terrorism Research in Singapore. She was named the Southeast Asia Visiting Scholar at CORE Lab at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.
Rappler has seen exponential growth in both reach and revenues. Maria has redesigned workflows, equipment, used crowdsourcing and big data. She creates new ways of looking at digital reach and advertising. MovePH, Rappler's citizen journalism arm, uses civic engagement to harness bottom up participation with top down government workflows in Project Agos (Disaster Risk Reduction & Management's real-time reporting platform now being used by the government).