ILLAC DIAZ ROCKS!!!

Illac is always hungry to experience life to the fullest and inspire others to believe that most of the things that hold us back can be overcome. He believes that if we are to do things in life, we must be either totally passionate and believe in it or not at all, and just too many people live in the lukewarm state of being indecisive or half hearted. People give up so easily and sometimes it happens at the moment that they are about to reach their dreams. As a person who is a dreamer, he always found a road to success!

The Philosophy of One. To Touch One Life. And In Doing So improve Society by the Smallest.. Then All Efforts Would Not Be In Vain . by Illac Diaz

Submitted by:Maria Jessica D. Geslan

The Philosophy of One. To Touch One Life. And In Doing So improve Society by the Smallest.. Then All Efforts Would Not Be In Vain . by Illac Diaz Illac, whose name is an Aztec term meaning God of Light, is in a unique position to inspire others with ideas, vision and passion to create enterprises that uplift sectors of society that would otherwise be forgotten. He is pioneering a whole new field of entrepreneurship, one that seeks to bring the strengths, efficiencies and solutions of business to bear on problems of society. His father Ramon is an accomplished visual artist who also happens to be a brother of the first Filipina Miss Universe, Gloria Diaz. His Italian-born mother Silvana, nee Ancellotti, runs the dynamic art house Galeria Duemila adjacent to the family home in Pasay City. Surrounded by both art and squatters in the neighborhood, Illac s childhood memories include accompanying his mother on her weekly feeding program for street children. Today he credits what he initially resisted as a chore for the human connection he developed with people outside the cloistered groups he was born to. Before Illac became a model, party figure and sometime executive for Smart Communications, he had already closed a crucial inner gap separating the educated Filipino from the teeming ranks of the Philippine poor.

With a bachelor s degree in Management Economics as a full academic as well as athletic scholar at the Ateneo, the seed his mother planted began its blossoming as Illac next earned a masters degree in social entrepreneurship at the Asian Institute of Management. His graduate thesis, Shanties to Jobs: Creating a Migrant Center in Manila, was not only chosen Best of the Year at AIM. It would be the first proof of a well-grounded, compassionate vision. Establishing Pier One in Intramuros the year he graduated from AIM in 2001 was the beginning of Illac s lengthening trail of firsts. This first migrant housing center in Manila met an urgent demand for affordable, clean and safe transient housing for men coming to Manila from the provinces to look for work as seamen, and seamen awaiting the next voyage out. Before then their housing options had been unhygienic shanties, expensive but run-down government shelters or the open air at the Luneta. Pier One made Illac Diaz the youngest AIM alumnus to receive an Honors & Prestige award in 2003. CNN reported the story and three new awards came in 2004 an Everyday Hero Special Award from Readers Digest Asia; an Entrepreneur Award from the 1st Johnny Walker Social Awards; and a runner-up award in New York s Next Big Idea International Design Competition. In 2005 came a TOYM Award, the first for Social Entrepreneurship. In September that year, Illac left for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston as a Fulbright-Humphrey Scholar and Research Fellow in a Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies (SPURS). This would lead to a grand slam of firsts never before accomplished by Filipinos at MIT three grand prizes for teams either led by or with Illac Diaz as a member: the inaugural $ 100 K Business Plan Competition on the development track ; the $1K Business Ideas Competition; and the IDEAS Competition.

The latter included a Peanut Revolution to help women manually shelling peanuts with simple pedal-powered machines, and First Step Coral, an artificial coral reef system to attract fish stock to shallower waters and hasten the growth of the shellfish population important sources of nutrition for coastal communities in the Philippines and beyond. Practically without a pause next came Illac s new MyShelter Foundation, Inc. and its earthbag construction, the first in Asia. This more affordable, indigenous rather than fully manufactured construction material addressed the shortage of clinics and schools in rural Philippines. MyShelter has thus far built five clinics and twenty classrooms at one fourth the cost in 10 provinces, as well as conducted complementary seminars on preserving dwindling forest resources.Housing and all forms of shelter have been a constant theme of Illac Diaz s public life. (The) dome houses he worked on some years back impressed me as a project that combined pragmatism with aesthetic sensibility. Bonus points on the work s compassion and creativity scale went through the roof. In this case, literally an egg shaped roof, made of soil, lime, water and some cement, wrote Ria Ferro in an interview for the magazine Pinoy Global Access in November, 2006. Nearly fireproof and earthquake proof, with a naturally cooler internal environment, such houses would take less energy to maintain, and cost about 50% less to construct than a traditional assembled box house. I remember thinking: what sort of mind would come up with something as unique, unexpected and relevant as that? The idea had alighted on Illac while visiting his late aunt Rio Diaz-Cojuangco in Negros, where he noticed adobe bridges built in Spanish times. Internet research and visits to India and America made him realize that the idea of adobe houses was eminently applicable to the Philippines. More important than the what and how is the why that he shared with Ferro: The issue here is the need for more housing. As population escalates, so will the gap. The main point is the involvement of the residents themselves in the task of sustainable construction and

community building. By the way they build their own settlements even at the barest of resources, we can see that they that they are willing to work and capable of coming together. In 2006, his year at MIT, he was named one the Ten Outstanding Persons of the World by Jaycees International. Word of the WEF Young Global Leaders Award came as he presently works on a global architectural competition to design more disaster resistant classrooms in the Philippines. Back in Boston, this time he s on a mid-career Masters in Public Administration as a Catherine Reynolds scholar in Social Entrepreneurship in Harvard s Kennedy School of Government. Illac Diaz was awarded the Young Global Leader of 2008 by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Geneva. He is also feature in the GO Negosyo book by Jose Concepcion, interviewed by Boy Abunda, Making headlines in the Philippine Star and cover story for Star week Magazine and countless publications. He truly deserved to be a part of our growing list of Filipino Achiever.