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Conrado Diaz Jr. - The Philippine Star
December 29, 2025 | 12:00am
Sta. Ana (2nd from right) in a huddle with fellow students at IE New York College.
MANILA, Philippines — Joshua Sta. Ana has made history as the first Filipino to graduate from IE New York College (IENYC), a new business-oriented masteral school affiliated with Madrid-based IE University - one of Europe’s most prominent academic institutions.
From there, a world of opportunities await him in the Big Apple – the financial capital of the world.
The 24-year-old former De La Salle student who hails from Antipolo traveled halfway around the globe to Madrid four years ago after clinching a scholarship grant from IE University.
After finishing a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from IE Business School and completing international exchange studies at the University of Southern California, he worked as an investment analyst at Tarifa Holding while still pursuing a Master in Business for Social Impact and Sustainability at IENYC.
He is currently a venture scout for Giant Ventures, further immersing himself in the world of venture capital and startup funding.
Prior to these jobs, Sta. Ana had stints at UBS, 10K Ventures and Innovis VC as investment analyst and interned at multinationals Unilever and Procter & Gamble in the Philippines.
With this extensive academic and work background, Sta. Ana is in a prime position to leverage this in his planned undertakings - making it big in the venture capital field to eventually bring back his expertise to the Philippines and help fuel a startup and entrepreneurship boom.
“I’ve always wanted to bring back what I’ve learned here at IENYC to help my fellow Filipinos become successful as businessmen and entrepreneurs, not only in the Philippines but on a global scale. Right now, I’m taking it one step at a time,” he told this writer.
With his past experience as a startup founder, venture capital investor and investment analyst, and driven as ever to make a difference, his time to step up might not be too far behind, after all.
