Archives: Authors

T. A. Ong is an Intellectual Property lawyer in the Philippines. She holds a Juris Doctor from the University of the Philippines and a Masters of Laws with Certificates of Specialization in Business Law and Law and Technology from the University of California, Berkeley. She has worked in SyCipLaw and a start-up before opening her online independent bookstore, Blithe Books. She has taught intellectual property and special commercial laws in the University of Cebu.

Eliza Victoria is an award-winning Filipino author. Her books include Dwellers (winner of the Philippine National Book Award for Best Novel), Wounded Little Gods, the graphic novel After Lambana (a collaboration with artist Mervin Malonzo), the science fiction novel-in-stories Nightfall, the short story collection Seventeen Prayers to the Many-Eyed Mother, and the poetry collection What Comes After. She has had stories and poetry published in various venues since 2007, most recently in The Best Asian Speculative Fiction, The Apex Book of World SF, Future SF, Multispecies Cities, and Asian Literature Project. Visit her at elizavictoria.com.

The Early Learning Program of Penguin Books offers a diverse collection of children’s books designed to support curriculum learning across various age groups, from infants and toddlers to pre-schoolers, ensuring engaging and age-appropriate content. These thoughtfully crafted books cater to the developmental needs of young learners and promote essential cognitive skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity, fostering a love for reading from an early age.

The list offers picture books, story books, coloring books, activity books, workbooks, reference books and other innovative titles and formats.

NIRMALYA KUMAR is Lee Kong Chian Professor of Marketing at the Singapore Management University. Previously, he headed strategy at Tata Sons, reporting to the chairman of the $100-billion Tata Group with 6,75,000 employees. Nirmalya has taught at Columbia University, Harvard Business School, IMD (Switzerland), London Business School and Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University). He has also been a visiting fellow at BITSoM, Cambridge Judge Business School, Indian School of Business and INSEAD.
Nirmalya is one of the world’s leading thinkers on strategy and marketing. As a consultant and speaker, he has worked with over fifty Fortune 500 companies in sixty countries. He has served on more than twelve boards of directors, including those of ACC, Ambuja Cement, Bata India, Tata Chemicals, Ultratech and Zensar.
Thrice included in Thinkers50 (the biannual listing of the top fifty management thinkers in the world), he received their Global Village Award for his contributions to the business community’s understanding of globalization and emerging markets before being inducted into their Hall of Fame.

Ronaldo Soledad Vivo Jr is a Filipino novelist, musician, and graphic artist. He is the author of the novels Ang Kapangyarihang Higit sa Ating Lahat (The Power Above Us All) and Ang Bangin sa Ilalim ng Ating mga Paa (The Abyss Beneath Our Feet). He has been recognized for his contributions to Philippine literature as the finalist for the Madrigal Gonzalez Best First Book Award and recipient of both the Gawad Bienvenido Lumbera and the Premyong LIRA. He is the founder of UngazPress, a collective of writers from the town of Pateros. He is also an award-winning filmmaker whose short films have been screened at festivals and cinemas in the Philippines and overseas. As a musician, he runs Sound Carpentry Recordings, which releases music on cassette, CD, and vinyl for worldwide distribution.

Karl R. de Mesa is a longreads journalist and photographer who has reported on stories in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Myanmar, and Singapore. He is an award-winning author of horror fiction and reportage books—finalists for the Philippine National Book Awards for journalism and non-fiction. His photo essays have appeared on CNN Philippines Life and Likhaan: The Journal of Contemporary Philippine Literature. Ronaldo Vivo Jr’s The Power Above Us All is his first novel as a translator. More at https://linktr.ee/karlrdemesa

Penguin Select Early Learning Program offers a diverse collection of children’s books designed to support curriculum learning across various age groups, from infants and toddlers to pre-schoolers, ensuring engaging and age-appropriate content. These thoughtfully crafted books cater to the developmental needs of young learners and promote essential cognitive skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity, fostering a love for reading from an early age.

The list offers picture books, story books, coloring books, activity books, workbooks, reference books and other innovative titles and formats.

Aneeta Sundararaj trained and practised as a lawyer before she decided to pursue her dream of writing. She also created and developed a website and called it How to Tell a Great Story. The aim remains to make it a resource for storytellers. Her writing has appeared in many magazines, ezines and journals. Some of the noteworthy book projects she’s worked on include Knowledge of Life: Tales of an Ayurveda Practitioner in Malaysia, The Banana Leaf Men and Mad Heaven: Biography of Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr. M. Mahadevan. For a while, she contributed feature articles to the lifestyle section of a national newspaper. Many of Aneeta’s short stories have been longlisted, shortlisted and won international literary competitions and awards. Her most recent and bestselling novel, The Age of Smiling Secrets was shortlisted for the Anugerah Buku 2020 organised by the National Library of Malaysia. Incidentally, edited versions of various chapters of this novel have appeared in multiple anthologies, most notably in We Mark Your Memory: Writings from the Descendants of Indenture, School of Advanced Study, University of London, in partnership with Commonwealth Writers, 2018. Throughout, Aneeta continued to pursue her academic interests and, in 2021, successfully defended a doctoral thesis entitled Management of Prosperity Among Artistes in Malaysia.

Sharon Sim, a financial industry veteran with over 20 years of experience, stands out for her commitment to investing in profit with purpose . As the Co-Founder and General Partner at Purpose Venture Capital, she actively pursues a mission to build and invest in technology ventures that contribute positively to society.

Her extensive career includes senior roles at renowned global banks such as Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, where she provided investment advice to institutional fund managers, sovereign wealth funds, and ultra-high net worth investors. Sharon’s expertise extends to wealth management and private banking, with major institutions like J.P. Morgan and UBS.

Sharon’s multifaceted role extends beyond traditional finance. She serves as the CEO of a Singapore-based Single Family Office and co-founded Women in Family Offices, showcasing her dedication to diverse leadership. However, Sharon’s true passion lies in giving back and empowering women in financial matters and shaping their financial destinies. Her journey reflects a blend of financial acumen, leadership in the investment space, and a strong commitment to social impact and gender empowerment.

With over 23 years of experience in the financial sector, Serena Wong is a seasoned advisor on family wealth, investing, banking, business development for family offices, and champion for women in business. She thrives where connections matter, particularly across cultures, family generations, and gender.

As Head of Advisory at Kamet Capital, a Singapore-based multi-family office, she led a team that delivered investment management, wealth planning, administrative services, and philanthropy advice to Asia’s most innovative entrepreneurs.

Serena held senior management roles including Head of Indonesia market for JPMorgan Private Bank and won the Business Partnership Award for large cross-business lines transactions. She honed her investment banking experience with Société Générale Corporate & Investment Bank where she worked in Paris and London covering Metals & Mining and Project Financing. She started her career at GIC Private Limited, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund.

Serena holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and a Bachelor of Social Science (with Honours) degree from National University of Singapore.

Serena is passionate to amplify women’s voices in business; she was a founding committee member of JPMorgan’s Women Interactive Network in Asia. She advocates for women and wealth and closing the women wealth gap. She is Co-Founder of Women in Family Offices, a professional group that supports women decision makers in Asia’s family office sector. To give back to her alma mater, Serena is Council Member for the Asia Pacific region at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Stephen (“Steve”) Thomas has over 25 years of experience leading strategic programs to earn, protect, and enhance corporate reputations.
He is currently a Partner at The Civic Partnership, a leading strategic communications and public affairs advisory firm.
From 2012 to 2021, Steve served as Head of Group Brand and Communications at AIA Group. In this role, he worked closely with the CEO and senior leadership to define and safeguard the company’s reputation as a publicly listed entity on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Before joining AIA, Steve was Managing Director and Head of Corporate Affairs for Citigroup in China, based in Shanghai. He began his career at Burson-Marsteller, contributing across their Melbourne and Hong Kong offices.
Steve’s professional achievements include multiple listings in PR Week’s Power Book as one of the world’s most influential PR professionals and inclusion in Provoke Media’s Influence 100, which recognizes the top in-house communicators globally. In 2020, he was honoured as the Asia-Pacific Association of Communications Directors’ In-House Communications Professional of the Year.
He was a Board Trustee of the Institute for Public Relations from 2014 to 2020 and chaired the Hong Kong chapter of the Arthur W. Page Society.

Rogelio R. Sicat left his hometown San Isidro, Nueva Ecija in the 1950s to work on a degree in journalism at the University of Santo Tomas. After serving as a campus writer and literary editor of The Varsitarian , Sicat went on to become one of the greatest pioneers of Philippine fiction by deliberately choosing Filipino for the language of his prose, and by veering away from the concerns and conventions of the Western modernist writers.
Sicat’s work, which rejuvenated Philippine literature’s tradition of social consciousness, first appeared in the Tagalog literary magazine Liwayway . He gained recognition in the Palanca awards in 1962, and in 1965 came out in an anthology, Mga Agos sa Disyerto , alongside like-minded young writers. Sicat wrote on through the decades, establishing his position in literary history as fictionist, playwright and professor, eventually accepting deanship in the University of the Philippines Diliman.
Impeng Negro and Tata Selo, both of which have been interpreted into film, are only two of Sicat’s acclaimed stories. His other works include Dugo sa Bukang-Liwayway , Pagsalunga: Piniling Kuwento at Sanaysay , and the play Moses, Moses. Sicat died in 1997, but was honoured a final time through a posthumous National Book Award the following year for his translation of William J. Pomeroy’s work into the title Ang Gubat: Isang Personal na Rekord ng Pakikilabang Gerilya ng mga Huk sa Pilipinas.

Ma. Aurora L. Sicat earned her Bachelor of Arts in Filipino degree at the College of Arts and Letters in the University of the Philippines Diliman. She has worked for GMA Worldwide, Inc. as a freelance translator where she translated their Tagalog television programs and movie shows to English.