Endeavor Catalyst

First product designer/leader at WhatsApp and Neeva, with over 25 years in UX, product, and design and a track record of adding 1.8 billion users. An active angel investor specializing in AI apps/SaaS, product design, and 0-to-1 scale-up.

Lisandro Bril is founder and managing partner of Oikos Innovation Capital. He has worked across multiple roles including founder, operator, investor, and advisor to support entrepreneurial and innovation initiatives in Latin America, contributing to the development of the region's venture capital ecosystem. His background includes involvement in management consulting, venture capital associations, educational initiatives, and technology incubators, as well as positions in government and public policy. He holds an economics degree from the University of Buenos Aires and a master's in public administration from Harvard Kennedy School.

Allen Taylor runs a nonprofit-owned fund that donates 100% of GP economics to sustain the organization, pairing an inside-builder path from employee #9 with LPs largely founders and Endeavor entrepreneurs.

Jackie Carmel in San Francisco leads fundraising and global investor relations, bridging emerging‑market founders with a worldwide LP network and publishing frequent bylined thought pieces as a public, narrative-driven voice.

Dr. Nadir Zafar is Managing Director at Endeavor, where he heads the Global Hub in Singapore, and serves as a Board Member of the Institute of HR Professionals (IHRP). He previously led the Singapore Leaders Network, an EDB-backed program managed by the Human Capital Leadership Institute, and held roles as Chief Operating Officer at a UAE-based education technology company and Board Member of a London-listed education company. He holds a Doctor of Education from NYU Steinhardt, an MBA from INSEAD, and a Bachelor of Business Management from Singapore Management University.

Yana El Dirani is Managing Director of Endeavor's Global Hub in Dubai and Head of MENA for Endeavor Catalyst, the organization's co-investment fund, covering the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Pakistan. She previously led Vivium Holding, a single family office in the UAE, and was a Partner at Modus Capital, with earlier roles at Credit Suisse and Delta Partners. She holds an MBA.

Beatrice Cord is VP of Global Partnerships at Endeavor, a network supporting entrepreneurs, with over 15 years of experience developing products and programs. A former diplomat who worked alongside the United Nations on initiatives related to youth empowerment, sustainability, and economic growth, she is based in New York and serves as an executive coach and course facilitator for the LEAD Program at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. She is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and an Aspen Young Leaders Fellow.

Dustin Poh is Creative Director at Endeavor. He has experience implementing global brand strategy for a non-profit operating in more than 50 markets worldwide, with work spanning brand identity development and execution.

Enrico Robles del Rio is Lead Director of Data Analytics and Platform at Endeavor Global, where he oversees the Platform team, data strategy and governance, infrastructure, and Endeavor One, a proprietary knowledge platform used across more than 40 markets. He has approximately 15 years of experience in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Mexico and Latin America, having previously served as CFO for a decade and Intelligence Director for six years at Endeavor Mexico. In 2021, he completed a 24-week Data Analytics and Visualization Bootcamp covering tools including Python, R, SQL, and machine learning techniques.

Konstantinos Iliopoulos is Director of Digital & Growth at Endeavor, where he leads the organization's new media arm focused on founders and markets that receive limited coverage. His work centers on converting audience attention into distribution, and he has contributed to Endeavor becoming a widely shared organization of its kind online. He publishes related stories at endeavor.org/stories.

Leah Barto is Lead Research Director at Endeavor, where she focuses on research related to social impact and entrepreneurship with a specialization in data journalism. Her work incorporates data visualization, narrative, and multimedia formats. Her prior experience includes composing and producing, grantmaking, and leading professional development programs.

Marta Ghiglioni is Lead Director of Entrepreneur Experience at Endeavor Global, where she oversees the San Francisco hub and the organization's AI programs, including an AI series that enrolled 295 CEOs in its first two months. Before this role, she led Endeavor's global entrepreneur servicing for three years, and her earlier career included advising top management on fintech and AI at UniCredit, serving as Managing Director of ItaliaFintech, and founding the companies Susa and Impactscool, the latter acquired by Treccani. She participated in Singularity University's Global Solutions Program in 2016 and contributed to the World Economic Forum's AI-First Enterprises workstream.

Nasim Novin is the Lead Director of Entrepreneur Experience at Endeavor Global, where she leads Endeavor Outliers, a program for the top 10% of highest-performing companies in the organization's global network. Since joining Endeavor in 2014, she has led its access to capital program and supported B2B SaaS and fintech companies, and she has over 15 years of experience in economic development and entrepreneurship. Earlier in her career, she worked on women's empowerment initiatives at the International Finance Corporation and youth inclusion programs at the Education for Employment Foundation.

Caela Tanjangco is Head of Asia at Endeavor Catalyst and a Kauffman Fellow (KF 31) at Kauffman Fellows. Her work focuses on venture investing in emerging markets and supporting the development of technology ecosystems.

Carmela Tran is a Finance Director at Endeavor Catalyst. She previously worked in the advisory practices of Caroprese & Company and PwC, where her work included carve-out financial statements, fraud investigations, litigation support, financial modeling, and data management. She is a Certified Public Accountant in Virginia, a member of the Virginia Society of CPAs and the AICPA, and holds a double major in Accounting and Operations and Information Management from Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business.

Derin Adebayo is Manager of Entrepreneur Selection at Endeavor, focusing on the spread of technology, entrepreneurship, and venture capital across emerging markets. Adebayo writes a newsletter titled "Unevenly Distributed" covering these topics.

Divya Titus is a Senior Research Manager at Endeavor, where she leads research on entrepreneurial ecosystems in emerging markets, focusing on how talent, capital, networks, and policy environments affect the ability of high-growth founders to scale their companies. At Endeavor Insight, she designs and oversees research approaches used across multiple countries and works with teams of policy analysts, data scientists, and economists to translate analysis into insights for ecosystem development and decision-making.

Felipe Medina serves as Biobío Manager at Endeavor Chile. He holds a degree in Commercial Engineering and a Master's in Project Evaluation from the Universidad San Sebastián.

Jacob VanderZwaag is Manager, Entrepreneur Selection at Endeavor, a global community for high-growth entrepreneurs. As part of the Global Entrepreneur Selection Team, he evaluates fast-growing technology companies across more than 35 countries to identify founders for the Endeavor network.

Laís Grilletti is a Global Content Strategist at Endeavor, where she leads Elsewhere, the organization's digital magazine covering how founders in emerging markets scale companies and develop entrepreneurial ecosystems. Her responsibilities include managing the content platform, public relations, newsletters, and story bank.

Manny Ayala serves as Chief People (and Transformation) Officer at Endeavor and is Regional Managing Director for Endeavor in Asia Pacific, overseeing offices across markets including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan, Singapore, Pakistan and New Zealand; he launched Endeavor's Philippines office in 2014. Before Endeavor he founded the venture builder Hatchd, co-founded and exited Entertainment Gateway Group, and co-founded IRG Ltd, a Hong Kong M&A firm focused on early-stage telecom, media and tech companies in Asia. He earlier led creative and strategy work at Turner Broadcasting and Discovery Channel Asia, and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Yale University.

Manuel Montoya is a Senior Software Engineer at Endeavor, where he works on the technology platforms supporting the organization's global network of entrepreneurs and operations across multiple countries. With more than seven years of experience, his work spans AI-powered applications, cloud infrastructure modernization, cybersecurity, and digital transformation. His areas of expertise include artificial intelligence and agentic systems, AWS cloud architecture, platform engineering, full stack development, and technical leadership.

Margarita Chavez is Chief Financial Officer at Endeavor, where she oversees global finance, systems, and data infrastructure across more than 45 countries and has worked to modernize the organization's internal platforms. She previously held leadership roles at UNICEF and Accenture. She holds a Master's degree from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and an MBA from IESA in Caracas.

Natassja Ruybal is Senior Manager of People and Transformation at Endeavor Global. She is a Chevening Scholar alumna and has lived in Ecuador, Tanzania, the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Ghana, Italy, Australia, the Dominican Republic, and the United Kingdom.

Sara Nacarate is Entrepreneur Experience Senior Manager at Endeavor's UAE Hub in Dubai, where she works on developing the entrepreneurship ecosystem. Trained as an agronomy engineer, she has focused her career on supporting entrepreneurs and their business models.

Silvia Cavalcanti is the Global CMO of Endeavor, where she leads brand, marketing, communications, and PR across 45+ countries and launched initiatives including Elsewhere by Endeavor and Endeavor Untold Stories. She previously served as North America Head of Brand Experience at Publicis Sapient and held leadership roles at BBDO, JWT, and McCann NY, working on brands such as Mastercard, Samsung, and Dunkin. Earlier she was a management consultant at Deloitte and co-founded several startups, including ViS, a business intelligence platform acquired by IQVIA in 2015; she holds an MBA from Boston University with postgraduate studies at Harvard.

Victoria Tarantino is Global Events Manager at Endeavor. Her work covers events and experiential production, experiential marketing, branding, and creative services.

Alan Gomes is the CTO and Co-founder of Incognia, where he leads the company's technology strategy. Incognia is a privacy-by-design identity and personalization platform focused on integrating location, privacy, and convenience.

Alejandro Martí is CEO and Co-Founder of Mitiga Solutions, a climate risk intelligence platform that applies AI and supercomputing to quantify and mitigate climate-related financial and operational risks for asset managers, insurers, and infrastructure companies. His background includes climate modeling work with research institutions including the Spanish National Supercomputing Center, NOAA, and UK MetOffice. He serves as Chairman of the UN-ITU Group on AI for Climate Applications.

An industrial engineer who founded 99minutos in 2014 and previously launched a company in his teens.

Benjamin Njenga is Co-Founder, Chief Customer Officer, and Managing Director for Kenya at his company, and is an Endeavor Entrepreneur. His work focuses on agriculture and the use of technology to serve small-scale farmers in Africa.

Caio Almeida is a mechanical engineer who has worked in technology since 2015. He founded Alugalogo, a construction equipment marketplace, in 2015, and later led partnerships at Uber Eats Brazil, helping expand the service to over 70 cities before founding Estoca, a logistics technology company for e-commerce, in 2020.

Caroline Fairbank studied economics at Dartmouth, during which she worked at a fintech startup in London. After graduating she worked in strategy consulting in New York, then moved to equity research at JPMorgan before transitioning into venture capital at Founders Circle Capital. She co-leads the San Francisco chapter of Synergist, a nonprofit supporting young women early in their careers.

Christian Knudsen is Co-founder and CEO of Littio. He has over ten years of experience in growth and scaling roles at tech startups across fintech, agriculture, and blockchain sectors.

Danai Ibrahim leads marketing and communications, working across strategy, business development, and digital transformation. She has more than a decade of experience spanning proptech, fintech, hospitality, investment, and education, focusing on brand building and growth. She holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Innovation and Design Thinking.

Danila De Stefano is the CEO and founder of Unobravo, a European mental health platform. The company operates a network of over 9,000 psychologists, has supported more than 500,000 patients with over 10 million sessions delivered, and employs a team of over 250 people. Following its start in Italy, Unobravo expanded to Spain in 2022 and France in 2024.

Co-founder of classifieds site Alamaula (sold to eBay in 2011), angel investor, Endeavor mentor and entrepreneur, and more recently Managing Partner at Newtopia VC.

Diego Rojas is a software engineer with over 16 years of experience in fintech, business intelligence, distributed systems, and AI across the United States, China, Europe, and Southeast Asia, including roles at LendingClub and Dianrong. He is the founder and former CEO of Finantier.

Elsa AR Yanni is an Associate Director at Endeavor with over ten years of experience in program design, entrepreneurship development, and partner relationship management. She designs and implements innovation programs in collaboration with governments, corporates, and development agencies to support startup ecosystems in emerging markets. Her work includes leading acceleration, incubation, and investment readiness initiatives for entrepreneurs.

Francisco Caceres is a Business Development Manager at CUNSA International, a contract manufacturer specializing in private label products in vitamins, minerals, and sports nutrition. He works with retailers to develop health and wellness brands, offering services that include market analysis, manufacturing, brand design, commercial strategy, and training. Caceres is an Endeavor Entrepreneur.

Freddy Vega is CEO and cofounder of Platzi, a technology education platform. He was born in Colombia and helped build the company into a large Spanish-language tech education provider.

Gatumi Aliyu served as Chief Product Officer at Vendease (YC W21) and co-founded 54Gene (YC W19), where he held the role of Chief Product Officer.

Partner focused on EMEA investments in architecture and engineering startups. He previously led startup and intrapreneurship programs at VINCI, worked at BONE Structure, and conducted fusion science research at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.

Managing Director at Scale-Up Ventures, associated with Endeavor.

Jacob Smith is Director of Finance and Operations at Helena Special Investments, where he handles fund administration, financial management, and compliance across the firm's investment platforms. He previously worked as Director of Finance and Fund Operations at Soma Capital Management and held senior roles at SAX Capital and Osceola Capital Management, focusing on fund operations, reporting, and LP transparency. He earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of South Florida.

Julián Melo worked as a business consultant and industrial engineering lecturer before building and scaling a LATAM corporate learning platform. He successfully launched into new markets and grew his customer base significantly through localized strategies.

Keng Low is a co-founder at Finantier, a financial services startup focused on Southeast Asia. He previously worked as an Entrepreneur in Residence at East Ventures, a seed and early-stage venture capital firm operating in Singapore, Indonesia, and Tokyo.

Lisa Mikkelsen is Head of Global Human Capital at Flourish Ventures, where she leads the firm's global HR strategy, workplace culture, and people development across the firm and its portfolio companies. She joined as part of Flourish's founding team and previously spent eight years helping build the Human Capital team at Omidyar Network, after beginning her career recruiting for two Silicon Valley startups. She holds a bachelor's degree in Psychology and Human Development from UC San Diego.

Luciana Reznik is a software engineer from Argentina who co-founded Wolox, an end-to-end digital solutions company acquired by Accenture in 2021. She is now CEO of Cedalio, an AI agent platform focused on automating procurement and accounts payable workflows.

Luis Bermejo is co-founder and managing partner of ALAYA Capital Partners, a venture capital fund investing in technology companies across Latin America and the USA. He is also co-founder of PLANOUX, a business development consulting firm, and co-founder of ADDVENTURE, a business angel club and academy. Bermejo serves on the board of Endeavor and has held senior management positions at Ernst & Young Paris, JG Ventures Argentina, and HP/EDS Argentina, along with an economics degree from the National University of Córdoba and an MBA from the Catholic University of Córdoba and Montpellier Business School.

Luis Enríquez is a General Partner at NAZCA, where he focuses on early-stage technology investments across Latin America. He founded Cultura Colectiva and has experience developing predictive algorithms and building and managing early-stage startups. He is a Kauffman Fellow and has been affiliated with Endeavor.

Luis Huertas is co-founder and chief product officer of Littio, a fintech company serving Latin America. He also mentors entrepreneurs through Endeavor and invests in startups as an angel investor.

Maria Angelica Enriquez is Head of Portfolio at Endeavor Catalyst, where she oversees a global portfolio of over 400 high-growth companies and has managed more than 40 liquidity events across private markets. She works with emerging venture funds in Latin America and Africa to develop data infrastructure and management processes. Enriquez has been recognized by Bloomberg as one of the 500 Most Influential People in Latin America and by the Latin America Venture Capital Association as a Top Emerging Women Investor.

Co-founder of UBITS who previously built an online university in Colombia for industrial worker upskilling. She led the company's growth from five to 250 employees while maintaining focus on workplace skills development.

CEO and co-founder of Eyewa, the Middle East's largest online eyewear retailer, and previously Managing Director at Foodpanda. Holds an MBA from Stanford GSB.

Miruna-Ioana Girtu is a Principal at Heritage Holdings and Venture Partner at SR, where she invests in early-stage startups and works to expand access to capital and partnerships within the startup ecosystem. She serves as an Entrepreneurship Expert and tutor at Oxford University, advises multiple academic and accelerator institutions including Oxford Seed Fund and Yale's Center for Digital Health & Innovation, and contributes to Forbes on venture capital and startup ecosystem topics. Her background includes degrees in Economics, International Business, and Management from UCL, Cambridge Judge Business School, and other institutions.

Niki Luhur is an Indonesian financial technology entrepreneur who serves as Group Chief Executive Officer of Vida Digital Identity, a company he founded. His work focuses on financial inclusion, and he is involved in supporting entrepreneurial communities through mentorship, venture capital, and policy advocacy.

Odunayo Eweniyi pairs co-founder/operator experience at PiggyVest, one of Africa’s largest consumer fintechs, with serving as a General Partner, giving founders scaling advice from helping millions save and invest billions.

Omair Ansari worked as an investment banker specializing in emerging and frontier equity markets across public and private sectors, with experience across multiple countries including Lagos, Dubai, Mumbai, and Johannesburg. He was a portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley where he oversaw two funds focused on consumer and fintech investments.

Omar Gabr is cofounder and president of Luciq, previously known as Instabug.

Pablo Orlando has over 16 years of experience in fintech and e-commerce solution development across Latin America, and previously served as COO of Bluesmart, a connected luggage company.

Panos Stravopodis is founder and CTO of Elyos AI. He has spent over 15 years in engineering leadership across FinTech, MarTech, and Climate Tech, including roles as VP of Engineering at Bulb/Zoa overseeing a 150+ person team on Smart Energy products in the UK, and senior positions at Funding Circle and Bynder.

Parthi Duraisamy studied engineering in Singapore on a full scholarship and subsequently held roles at Barclays Investment Bank and McKinsey before earning a degree from Dartmouth College. He founded Alaan.

Managing Director of Endeavor Atlanta with partnerships including Visa, Microsoft, Nike and Salesforce Ventures. She serves on the board of Black Women in Venture Capital.

Rodrigo Cava has held roles in data analytics, operations, and customer experience at marketplace companies including Uber and Rappi, and has consulting experience in project management, development, and design.

American entrepreneur whose career spans campus ventures, derivatives trading, film financing, enterprise sales and creator commerce. Galanis cofounded Cameo with Martin Blencowe and Devon Townsend after a Cassius Marsh video shown during a drive from his grandmother's funeral suggested that a personalized selfie video could be the modern autograph. Galanis supplied the commercial thesis, CEO leadership, fundraising and public storytelling; Blencowe brought sports and entertainment access; Townsend built the first product and broadened supply to internet creators. Under Galanis, Cameo reported $100 million in 2020 GMV, raised $100 million at a valuation above $1 billion in 2021 and acquired Represent, then faced a steep post-lockdown correction: repeated layoffs, a 2024 financing below $100 million and a multistate paid-endorsement settlement. Galanis has publicly accepted responsibility for overhiring and the cultural costs of fully distributed work while continuing to argue that expanding fame and direct-to-fan demand support Cameo's long-term market. His documented personal investments cluster around creator advertising, talent access, marketplaces, gaming education and logistics; round totals are not his check sizes, and Cameo's institutional backers are not his portfolio.

Victor Noguera founded Flat.mx, a real estate marketplace and instant buyer in Mexico, and previously established STARTegy, a seed fund. He worked as a management consultant at BCG in New York and Barcelona, and holds an Industrial Engineering degree from Barcelona and an MBA from UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.

Yoshi Yokokawa is co-founder and CEO of Alpaca. Previously, he led tech startups in deep learning and enterprise software, and held a VP role in securitized products at Lehman Brothers and Nomura before transitioning to full-time trading.

Principal focused on early-stage technology companies. Previously an angel investor and founder, most recently of Elenas, a social commerce platform.