Walk into a room with Faye Abrihan and you’ll feel it before you see it — the energy. Not the loud, attention-seeking kind. It’s cooler than that. Focused. Intentional. Like a compass that always knows where north is, even when the world’s spinning.
Faye Abrihan is a force. A builder of businesses. A mentor to dreamers. A woman reshaping leadership — thoughtfully, gracefully, and with the kind of quiet strength built over years of purpose and persistence.
From Tiendesitas to the C-Suite
Long before she was building investment ecosystems or advising startup founders, Faye Abrihan was a young girl spending her summer breaks behind the counter of her family’s businesses. While other kids her age were riding bikes or glued to cartoons, Faye was learning how to manage a store — writing checks, interacting with customers, and handling inventory at their Tiendesitas stall and Human Nature branches in Batangas.
It wasn’t a chore — it was a curiosity. Business wasn’t just something her parents did, it was something they lived. Her father, a metallurgist and mining engineer, brought precision and discipline to the family table. Her mother, who spent over four decades in the fashion industry, infused creativity and tenacity into everyday life. Watching them, Faye absorbed not just the mechanics of business — but the deeper values of responsibility, grit, and grace.
A Journey Built on Purpose
Faye’s journey hasn’t followed a straight line — but every step has been intentional.
At 21, she dove headfirst into the world of advertising, landing at the renowned agency Gallardo & Associates. While most fresh grads were still adjusting to the nine-to-five, Faye was already pitching to clients, sitting across the table from creative legends like Nonoy Gallardo and Elaine Meris.
It was here she discovered the transformative power of Design Thinking — a problem-solving framework that would become her secret weapon in every role that followed. “It’s all about empathy first,” she explains. “Understanding who you’re serving, what they care about, and how to solve real problems for them.”
From advertising, she pivoted into fintech — long before it was a buzzword. At GCash, she helped roll out credit-line services for sari-sari store owners and built financial tools for communities traditionally left out of the conversation. She worked on one of the first cashless ecosystems in the Philippines, back when mobile payments were still considered a novelty. Her role wasn’t just technical — it was transformational. It blended innovation with compassion, business with nation-building.
Then came public service. Faye joined the campaign team of Senator Grace Poe, eventually serving as a Legislative Assistant in the Philippine Senate from 2019 to 2021. Policy, politics, and grassroots engagement — all new terrain, all tackled with the same sharp mind and soft heart. Here, she deepened her understanding of the systems shaping Filipino lives and doubled down on her belief that change is possible — but only with collective, consistent effort.
And then, a shift: in 2017, Faye left the corporate world behind. No corner office. No job title to hide behind. Just the decision to bet on herself. She became an asset manager and investment consultant, working behind the scenes with startups and founders, helping shape businesses from scratch. She wasn’t chasing trends — she was building infrastructure. Quietly, intentionally.
That chapter led her to Pantheon Holdings, where she teamed up with long-time collaborator and business partner Brian Poe Llamanzares. Together, they transformed their investment work into a full-blown ecosystem — an incubator for ideas, a community for risk-takers, and a safe space for founders to dream, fail, grow, and thrive.
Every milestone — every pivot, every risk — has been stitched together by a single thread: purpose. Faye never moves just to move. She moves to make things better. None of this was planned in a Pinterest-vision-board kind of way. It was built by saying yes.
Pantheon: Nurturing Dreams Into Reality
At Pantheon Holdings, where she now serves as CEO, Faye works alongside business partner Brian Poe Llamanzares to help startups not just survive, but thrive. And not in the Silicon Valley sense of “move fast and break things.” Pantheon’s philosophy is more grounded. It’s about mentoring, strategizing, protecting, and nurturing.
“We really pride ourselves in helping talented individuals build a sustainable business with purpose and value,” she says. The goal? Create an ecosystem where ideas are grown with care, where founders feel seen, and where creativity and strategy meet on equal terms.
At Pantheon, they don’t just fund businesses — they roll up their sleeves. Founders are guided through the messy, magical early stages of building: branding, legal frameworks, operational strategy, storytelling. Whether it’s a new fintech platform or a fashion startup, the approach is the same — human-centered, purpose-driven, and always collaborative.
Leadership with Heart and Grit
Faye doesn’t lead with ego — she leads with empathy. And make no mistake, she’s tough. “Tough love, definitely,” she says of her leadership style. She’s the kind of boss who will push you to be better — but will also tell you when you’ve nailed it.
Most of her team is her age or younger, which means she leads with curiosity, not assumption. “I cannot motivate my team if I’m going to assume what they really care about.” So she listens. She adapts. She evolves. That’s what makes her magnetic — not just what she builds, but how she builds it.
Living Fully, Leading Mindfully
Ask her about work-life balance and she’ll tell you the truth: it’s hard. Really hard. But maybe the goal isn’t to balance it all at once. “I think what’s more important is that we really focus on getting to know ourselves through the journey,” she says.
She recharges by connecting — with people, ideas, and sometimes, spontaneous adventures at the White Rabbit Building (her go-to hangout). She’s an extrovert, a coach-at-heart, a learner-for-life. And if she weren’t in business? She’d be teaching — still innovating, still building something that matters.
Wisdom from the Journey
Faye doesn’t buy into the idea that success is all hustle and no grace. For her, the equation is simple: strategy + empathy + action. Or in her own words: “You can only expect from yourself and hope for the best for everyone else.” It’s a quiet mantra with radical power.
She’s inspired by coaches, leaders, and the unsung Filipina scientists and engineers she hopes to one day have dinner with — women who had to break through walls just to be heard. “To this day, I still find myself as sometimes the only woman in the boardroom,” she reflects. But instead of being discouraged, she channels that reality into purpose.
Leadership that Elevates
Faye Abrihan isn’t interested in being the loudest voice in the room. She’s focused on making the room better. She builds organizations that function like families, teams that think like founders, and companies that don’t just sell — they serve.
In a world craving more thoughtful leadership, more genuine connection, more businesses with soul — Faye is exactly what the moment needs. Bold, principled, relentlessly curious. She’s not here to dominate industries.
She’s here to change them.
Team Head: Gem Ausa
Styling: Abraham Guardian
Wardrobe: Mamuro Oki
HMU: Ariana Ortega
Location: Cheshire, White Rabbit Building, Poblacion
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