Board Member
Childhope Philippines, Inc.
Chips Guevara is a mechanical engineer with an MBA from Manchester Business School. He is a social entrepreneur and an environmentalist. He used his engineering and business skills to start up an alternative fuel company that provided technology for diesel engines to run on used cooking oil, in the hopes of zeroing out the carbon footprint of the jeepney industry. He is the marketing and communications director of the SEA Institute, a marine conservation Non-Profit Organization dedicated to the conservation of the Verde Island Passage. He is the current vice chairman of Childhope Philippines, Inc., a Non-Profit Organization that advocates for street children, where he tutored street children in Math for 2 years before joining the board. He has been serving as a board trustee for Childhope since 2010. He is the co-founder with his wife of Akiko Thomson Swim School, where they ran a special needs swim program. He is now the Operations Director of PURE EVs, a social enterprise that is paving the way for electric vehicles to penetrate the public transport sector in the Philippines. He hopes to zero out the public transport’s carbon footprint to help stop climate change, and to bring down air pollution.
Chips is happily married to Akiko, the current chairperson of Special Olympics Pilipinas. He has 3 children – two rambunctious boys, Noah and Elijah; and he is wrapped around the finger of Sachiko, his 4 year old daughter with Down Syndrome. Chips loves to play soccer and swim with his kids.
Chips joined the BOD of Special Olympics Pilipinas because he would like to provide a place for individuals with special needs to play and do sports, develop as athletes, and build their confidence in themselves. To Chips, Special Olympics Pilipinas seemed the most natural fit. Having a child with special needs, he and his wife started a special needs program in their swim school. Sports development was always a part of their lives as a couple, and now development of individuals with special needs.
Chips hopes to bring in his experience in running non-profits and social enterprises and his business acumen into Special Olympics Pilipinas.
Chips believes inclusion means including our special needs kids in all that we do – when we study at school, when we work at the office, when we have conversations, when have social events like birthday parties, and when we play and do sports.
