Philo Alto (MBA/MPA 2000) founded Asia Value Advisors to engage individuals and organizations in philanthropic ventures that create positive, sustainable impact. The advisory platform encourages cross-sector leadership and thinking among philanthropists, investors, and policymakers in addressing shared societal challenges.

In this video, he discusses the philosophy and goals behind his firm:

“When I graduated from HBS, I felt that there was a disconnect between making money [and] at the same time trying to see how I can actually make a difference. I really had to step back and actually try to figure out can I do this as a sustainable enterprise? And that’s how I set up my own organization, which is called Asia Value Advisors.

“Asia Value Advisors is a philanthropic advisory platform that helps to engage and inspire individuals and organizations to create positive, sustainable impact, getting people to cross-connect and cross-pollinate our ideas. It enables philanthropic funders, whether they are philanthropists giving money or they are institutional investors who want to actually deploy their assets via venture philanthropy or impact investing, to address common issues, and also understand who are the other players across the social ecosystem [who] are doing similar things and how they might be able to collaborate with each other. What I found by doing that is that I met so many different people who, in their various life stages, really want to find ways by which they can make a difference and give back to society. And that in itself was highly rewarding and fulfilling for me.

“When I grew up in the Philippines, I experienced a contrast between poverty and material wealth. And throughout my years in the Philippines leading up to HBS, I felt that this disconnect and how I can make a living for myself, at the same time creating an impact to society, is actually quite important.”

(Published September 2015)

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