Oliver has over 12 years of experience in building and launching products in emerging markets. He's the founder and CEO of Ava, an e-commerce and digital strategy company with B2C and B2B businesses. Oliver started an online brand without knowing how to write a single line of code or designing on Photoshop, bootstrapped it for a year, raised 2 rounds of funding, and brought the company from zero to profitability in a notoriously competitive market where majority of local e-commerce startups die within 3 years.

Oliver's story starting a tech company in an emerging market is taught as a case study at Harvard Business School and Stanford GSB. He’s also a Director at the Segovia Group, a 40-year real estate business with whom he co-founded M Suites, a budget hotel.

Oliver's writes for the Harvard Business Review and co-authored the book "Passion & Purpose". The Financial Times reviewed it as "wholly infectious", and an "upbeat, enjoyable read—as well as a useful one.” He was last year’s Ricebowl Awards winner for Journalist of the Year. He also regularly hosts entrepreneurship workshops via www.actionstack.org, and speaks at conferences about startups and innovation.

Oliver was born and raised in Manila, and used to live in Singapore where he worked for Procter & Gamble where he helped launch new products across Southeast Asia. He had a brief stint for the strategy consulting firm McKinsey. Oliver has a Management Engineering degree from Ateneo de Manila and an MBA from Harvard Business School.