Judge: Maria Odiamar Racho

Maria is an intrapreneur, C-suite advisor, and community builder turned investor with experience in large scale business transformations, building more than a dozen Asian American and Filipino networks, and founding a 700 person corporateincubator called Intrapreneurs@Allstate. Intrapreneurs@Allstate runs the internal shark tank, startup challenges and has generated more than 15 provisional patents for the Fortune70 corporation.

With more than 28 years of business experience in sales, IT, human resources, and finance, Maria has advised and mentored more than 100 organizations from startups to established companies on:

• Strategy, system and culture alignment
  • From startup:
    • Launching of internal new ventures
    • Running corporate incubator
  • To acquisition:
    • Running proof of concepts with startups
    • Making recommendations or connections for potentialacquisitions
    • Contributing to corporate due diligence
    • Integration of mergers & acquisitions (structural, cultural, process)
  • To scaled: 
    • Supported the implementation of continuous improvementmethodology
    • Six sigma green belt certified
    • Operating model design/redesign

Maria completed an Executive Master of Science in Organization Development atPepperdine University where she is adjunct faculty. She is also a published researcher and speaker on Asian American leadership. Maria currently serves on the board of the Organization Development Network – Chicago, and is a startup mentor in the 2022 Global Insurance Accelerator. In 2020, her leadership with anAsian American Small Business COVID19 Relief Task Force helped lay the groundwork for the opening of an Illinois Small Business Development Center for the AAPI community. Maria is Co-founder and Managing Partner of FilKor Capital, whose mission is to empower resilient Asian Americans to build enduring companies. Its initial focus is on underserved parts of the community, particularly Asian American women. FilKor Capital’s aim is to not only find, fund, and grow the best and brightest Asian American founded companies, it’s to also build ecosystems to create pathways for many more to follow.