The GILAS New York Tri-State Team of the Ayala Foundation USA has geared up to meet the needs and challenges to promote and support the GILAS Project (Gearing up Internet Literacy and Access for Students). GILAS, spearheaded and administered by the Ayala Foundation, was created to enable Filipinos to be technologically globally competitive by providing PCs, teacher/student IT training, and internet connectivity to all of the country’s 6,000 public high schools. We have raised contributions connecting 1,500 schools towards our 6,000 school goal.
The GILAS New York Tri-State Team, comprised of volunteers from the Filipino/Filipino-American community, local businesses, professional associations, student groups, alumni associations and Fortune 500 companies, recently developed a Master Plan to roll out programs in support of GILAS in 2008. Led by Co-Chairs Leo Legaspi and Ronna Reyes Sieh, the Executive and Steering Committees would manage activities for the year. The team consists of an Executive Committee comprised of the two Co-Chairs, Secretary Marilyn Abalos, and Analisa Balares, as well as a Steering Committee comprised of the following Committee Leads: Treasurer Sonia Po; Ronna Reyes Sieh (High Net Worth); Marilyn Abalos (Corporate Employees); Ninez Arreglado (Corporate/Foundations); Jesse Go, JD Generoso, Analisa Balares (Youth/Young Professionals Outreach & Viral Marketing); Maita de Guzman (Fil Am Organizations) and Valerie Barrios, Steven Juh & Moe Mendoza (Special Events). Some activities include reaching out to the Filipino community, student groups, professional organizations corporations and foundations.
Executive Committee Bios:
GILAS New York Tri-State Team Co-Chair Leo Legaspi is the Managing Director of Legaspi & Carlson Associates, LLC. His former positions include Director of Strategic Planning at NYNEX Mobile Communications; Director at Next Generation Networks, Gemplus Corp., Consultant at Chase Econometrics and Product Manager at San Miguel Corporation. He holds an MS Degree, Interactive Telecommunications, NYU and MBA, Fordham University.
Ronna Reyes Sieh, GILAS New York Tri-State Team Co-Chair, is a Principal at RRS Advisors, a financial and strategic advisory firm. Born and raised in the Philippines, she first moved to the United States for her undergraduate studies. She has over 10 years experience in advisory services companies. Her clients at RRS Advisors include an $8 billion media and Internet company where she worked on various strategic and operational initiatives. While at Morgan Stanley, Ronna was an Equity Research Analyst covering Technology Companies with market capitalizations ranging from $500 million to over $20 billion. She started her career at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Ronna is also an active member in the community as an Advisory Board Member of Educating Latin America and Executive Board Member of Manhattan Twins Club. She sits on the Capital Campaign Committee of St. Ignatius Loyola Parish in New York. Ronna holds a B.A. from Boston College (cum laude), and M.B.A. from Columbia University. She also graduated Dartmouth Tuck School of Business' Post-MBA back in Business Program.
GILAS New York Tri-State Team Secretary Marilyn Abalos was Analyst in the Commercial Business Group of Citigroup. Her 20 year career at Citi include project management, audit and compliance, communications and client service in the Corporate Investment Bank and Global Consumer Group. She is also a founding member of the Citigroup Asian Pacific Heritage Network, member of CBG Diversity Council, and The Women’s Council (CIB), Downtown Steering Committee. Born and raised on Guam, she has served as Chair of the Hawaii based Consortium of Pacific Arts and Cultures, Chair of the Insular Arts Council of Guam, Chief of Staff for the Arts and Culture Committee of the Guam Legislature, Press Secretary for the Office of the Speaker of the Guam Legislature, Editor of the Pacific Voice Newspaper. She has also served as President of the Filipino Ladies Association and Public Relations Officer of various chapters of the American Cancer Society, American Red Cross, N.O.W. An arts and culture writer for Filipino Reporter and a number of Asian American publications, she is a member of the Asian American Journalists Association. She holds a Masters Degree from New York University and BA from Fordham University.
Analisa Balares is the CEO and founder of Womensphere, a New York-based integrated multi-media company that creates multi-media content and events to inspire and empower women around the world. Analisa is also Founder of Huckleberry Interactive Technologies, a company focused on interaction design and software development. She was formerly Global Marketing Manager for Microsoft's blogging/social networking service, Windows Live Spaces. Analisa launched her career at the Goldman Sachs High Technology Investment Banking group, where she helped execute over $1.5 billion in IPOs and corporate financings for high technology clients. Her clients included open source software leader Red Hat, data infrastructure pioneer StorageNetworks, and communications leader Nokia. Her professional experience includes co-founding and co-leading the non-profit Global Entrepreneurship Network; working for Milestone Capital as Director of Development & New Ventures; as well as summer work at Morgan Stanley's Energy Investment Banking Group, World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), Mellon Bank, and Massa Products. Analisa holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics & Mathematics cum laude from Mount Holyoke College. She also has an International Baccalaureate diploma from Lester Pearson United World College of the Pacific, where she was a scholar of the Canadian International Development Agency and the Ayala Foundation.
Editor’s Note: Per readers’ request, we will feature other members of the Steering Committee as well as key volunteers in future publications of the Newsletter. |
