Earl Valencia is a venture-backed startup founder, investor and corporate innovation executive that has worked in Silicon Valley, New York and Southeast Asia. In 2023, he was appointed by the President of the Philippines as an Executive Member of the National Innovation Council representing the Business Sector.
He spent his time in Wall Street in the data team of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, and a Managing Director of Digital at Charles Schwab. He also spent several years in enterprise tech working at the Emerging Technology and Innovation teams at Cisco, VMWare and Dell EMC.
He was the VP of Corporate Development and Innovation at Smart-PLDT at 29, and became one of the youngest executives in the entire Philippines during his time. He also co-founded IdeaSpace, the leading incubator and accelerator based in Manila and QBO, the public-private innovation center of the Philippines, both with a combined 100+ incubated companies.
For his contributions to emerging market innovation, he was honored by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader, and awarded by the President of the Philippines as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men and Women of the country. He was also featured in the NASDAQ Times Square Billboard for being selected in NASDAQ Centers Milestone Makers program.
Earl started at the University of the Philippines and completed his degree in Electrical Engineering, Summa Cum Laude, from Boston University. He also has a Masters in Systems Engineering from Cornell University, and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is currently an adjunct faculty for global leadership at the Jack Welch College of Business and Technology at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut and the Asian Institute of Management.
