Illac Diaz

From WikiPilipinas: The Hip 'n Free Philippine Encyclopedia

Illac Diaz, a man who is a dreamer but also believes that failure is part of success. Illac Diaz was born in Manila in September 15. He is the son of Ramon, an accomplished visual artist and brother of Gloria Diaz, the first Filipina Miss Universe.

1 Career and Education
2 Accomplishments
3 Awards
4 Sources:
5 Citation

[edit] Career and Education

Nurtured by an Italian-born mother, Silvana nee Ancellotti who runs an art house Galeria Duenila, Illac studied High School in Ateneo de Manila in 1990. He earned his bachelor in Management Economics also at Ateneo.

As a young fellow and bachelor, he was then a model, a party-goer and an actor for sometime. He was also an advertising executive for Smart Communication. But he strove for more.

To further his studies, he took a Masters Degree in Entrepreneurship at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) with graduate thesis: “Shanties to Jobs: Creating a Migrant Center in Manila.” Then he later left to study in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston with Urban Planning, Course II – Urban Studies and Planning. In 2008, he took Masters of Political Administration, MPA 1 in Harvard.

[edit] Accomplishments

Someone who is as inspired, creative, determined and warm-hearted as Illac is definitely the kind of person who can contribute to improve the social and economic condition of the country. He established Pier One, an affordable, clean and safe house for seafarers. This transient housing is for seamen coming from the provinces, looking for work and waiting for their next voyage. To help the women to manually shell off peanuts with simple pedal-powered machines, he established the “Peanut Revolution”. Then he established First Step Coral, an artificial coral reef system to attract fish to shallower waters. In 2001 up to the present, he is the Executive Director and Founder of MyShelter Foundation, Inc. It is a social enterprise that looks for sustainable housing solutions for homeless and the lack of infrastructure in developing countries, like the Philippines.

[edit] Awards

Illac is he youngest AIM alumnus to receive an Honors and Prestige Award because of Pier One. In 2004 he got a three-in-a-row award. He got an Everyday Hero Special Award from the Readers Digest Asia and an Entrepreneur Award from the 1st Johnny Walker Social Award. He was runner-up in New York’s Next Big Idea International Design Competition. He got the First for Social Entrepreneurship from TOYM Award in 2005. His latest citation is the “Young Global Leaders of 2008” by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Geneva.

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 always believe 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!