Five Pinoys make it to Forbes’ ‘30 Under 30 Asia Class of 2020’

Five individuals representing the Philippines made it to this year's Forbes "30 Under 30 Asia Class of 2020," joining a list of the region's top young entrepreneurs and change-makers.

The list includes 30 honorees for every category -- Arts; Consumer Technology; Enterprise Technology;  Entertainment and Sports; Finance & Venture Capital; Healthcare & Science; Industry; Manufacturing & Energy; Media, Marketing & Advertising; Retail & E-Commerce; Social Entrepreneurs.

"This year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list-makers inspire optimism in what is promising to be a tough year ahead. They are a resilient and energetic bunch who are facing challenges head-on and actively working for a future that matches their aspirations," said Rana Wehbe, Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia Editor.

The five listees from the Philippines and their write-ups:

Breech Asher Harani

A filmmaker, photographer, and digital artist from the Philippines who uses his work to raise awareness on social issues such as diversity, migration, environment, and culture.

He is also the founder of Alexandrite Pictures, an independent studio that produces multimedia works for advocacy, commercial, and on a commission basis. He is also the recipient of multiple awards including the JCS International Young Creatives Award Winner 2019 by the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Carlos Yulo

A Filipino gymnast who became the first male athlete in Southeast Asia to win a gold medal at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in 2019, when he won for the men's floor exercise. His debut appearance at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games also earned Yulo two gold and five silver medals. For all his achievements, Yulo received the President's Award at the Philippine Sportswriters Association in March. He will be representing the Philippines at the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Francis Plaza

Francis Plaza is co-founder and CEO of Phillipine-based PayMongo, an online payments processing platform. In September last year, just a few months after it graduated from Y Combinator and launched, the startup raised $2.7 million in seed funding from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, San Francisco-based VC firm Founders Fund and fintech unicorn Stripe. Before starting PayMongo, Plaza was a software engineer at Oracle and co-founded online marketplace Muber. He graduated from MIT with a bachelor's degree in computer science and engineering. He was admitted to the top institution when he was just 16 years old.

Louise Mabulo

The founder of The Cacao Project, an initiative that provides farmers in the Philippines with cacao plant seedlings and teaches them how to responsibly and sustainably produce cacao. To date, the project has helped more than 200 farmers plant 80,000 trees. The project aids reforestation efforts and has helped with the revival of two water sources from increased water retention in soil. In addition to cacao, the project provides farmers with other crops, such as bok choy, okra and pumpkins to intercrop with the cacao and maintain soil fertility. For her efforts, Mabulo was recognized as a Young Champion of the Earth 2019 by the United Nations Environment Programme.

Margielyn Didal

At the most recent Asian Games in 2018, Margielyn Didal helped win one of four gold medals for the Philippines by winning the women's street skateboarding event. As of this writing, Didal is preparing to qualify for the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo, where skateboarding has been included in the Games for the first time. In February, Didal was awarded Athlete of the Year at the Sportswriters Association of Cebu-San Miguel Brewery Cebu Sports Awards, considered the "Oscars of Cebu sports." And in March, she claimed bronze at the first-ever Women's Open at the annual Tampa Pro competition in Florida.

For this year, the listees were selected from a pool of 3,500 nominated. They represent 22 countries across the Asia-Pacific region, with the most coming from India with 69.

This was followed by China with 41, Japan with 31, South Korea with 25, and Australia, Indonesia, and Singapore with 22 honorees each.—AOL, GMA News