ANNUAL GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING (GMM) via Zoom Webinar

As a strong advocate for free entrepreneurship education for 12 years, he was called to serve the country again under President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s administration as the DTI Secretary. He has received several awards such as: the Honorary Agora in Nation Building Award in 2018; the 2016 Nation Builders Award for Government Service for his role as prime mover in Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSME) development; and the Philippine Innovation Man of the Year Award in 2017 for the promotion of social entrepreneurship through innovation. In 2018, he received from President Duterte the Order of Sikatuna, with a rank of Datu, one of the senior honors one can receive in the Philippines.

He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the University of the Philippines and topped his Master’s Degree in Development Economics class at Williams College, Massachusetts.

On 5 November 2020, he was named as the government’s Vaccine Czar, and led the crafting of the National COVID-19 Vaccination Roadmap and Implementation Plan. Prior to becoming a member of the President Duterte’s cabinet, he served as the 50th Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and held the rank of four-star general.

He earned his Master’s Degree in Project Management in the University of New South Wales, Australia. He is also a Bridging Leadership Fellow of the Asian Institute of Management.

Sec. Galvez was also a recipient of the prestigious United States Eisenhower Fellowships in 2006.

In 2016, he was appointed Chairperson of the powerful House Committee on Energy where he pushed for sustainable, reliable and affordable energy, and was the main proponent of the Murang Kuryente Act, the Disaster Emergency Fund for Electric Coops Act and the Energy Efficiency & Conservation Act.

Speaker Velasco has faithfully served the Lone District of Marinduque. In the 18th Congress, he entered as a veteran lawmaker in his early 40s and became one of the youngest Speakers of the House of Representatives in the new millennium, having the singular ability of balancing tradition and innovative leadership.

Under his leadership, Blaize has brought together marquee investors to back the vision of the founding team, developed and delivered a new generation of both AI hardware and software products that spearhead the future of AI for customers across automotive, smart vision, retail, and industrial sectors, and built a team of exceptional talent in its US, UK, Japan and India offices.

Prior to co-founding Blaize, he spent 12 years at Intel where he led global teams building graphics chips for multiple $10 billion programs, and held pivotal roles in graphics processor micro-architecture and design and feature ownership in the mobile and graphics engineering group, as well as with the Intel Centrino platforms. Programs included Intel’s next generation multi-core, multi-threaded graphics chips, and the architecture for Intel’s first integrated CPU/GPU product family.

He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree, Electrical and Computer Engineering, from Osmania University, India, and a Master of Science degree, Electrical and Computer Engineering, from Purdue University, USA.

Actively engaged in community service initiatives, he has for 10 years taken a leadership role in fund raising for CRY (Child Relief and You)/Vibha (Sacramento Action Center), a non-profit that supports educational projects for underprivileged children, and is an active supporter of Kiva & Vittana initiatives, empowering students and entrepreneurs globally to achieve their goals via non-profit micro-finance loans.

Prior to this, he led the enterprise commercial business for Microsoft Singapore, where his leadership and focus on transforming the business delivered unprecedented value for customers and partners.

Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, he has 20 years of experience in the IT industry and has held various regional leadership positions in consulting, sales management, marketing and business management. His previous experiences include regional roles at Microsoft, Quest Software, IBM and as a co-founder for entrepreneurial projects.

Mr. Juan Victor Hernandez is currently the Senior Vice President and Head of the Enterprise Business Groups of PLDT and Smart, the segment that serves the small, medium, large and top tier enterprises across the Philippines. Concurrently, he is the President & CEO of the ePLDT (the ICT arm of the group) as well as its subsidiaries namely, ABM Global Solutions, Inc., IP Converge Data Services, Inc. ePDS, Inc. and Curoteknika, Inc. He is also the President of Bonifacio Cable Corporation, Director of PLDT Global Corporation and Heads its Enterprise businesses present in the United States, United Kingdom, Hongkong, Singapore and Australia.

He is Chairman of the Board of Asian Carriers Conference Inc., Board Director of ACASIA Communications Sdn Bhd and Board Adviser of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation, Inc. (SEIPI).

Mr. Hernandez obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of the Philippines and his Master’s degree in Business Management from the Asian Institute of Management.