Reese Fernandez-Ruiz

Reese Fernandez-Ruiz (born 1985) is a Filipino social entrepreneur and President and Founding Partner of Rags2Riches, a sustainable fashion enterprise established in 2007. The company aims to empower Philippine-based artisans, fashion and home products that follow environmental ethics principles, and alleviate poverty in Payatas, Quezon City and other communities around Metro Manila.

Biography She was born Therese Clarence Arellano Chua Fernandez-Ruiz in the Philippines in 1985. She was raised by her mother, a missionary. Her mother’s work exposed Fernandez-Ruiz to the poverty in the Philippines.

Education Fernandez-Ruiz attended Ateneo de Manila University where she studied management. She attended certificate courses for Sustainable Fashion in Central Saint Martins University of the Arts London and Art & Science of Systems Change in Harvard Kennedy School.

Career Through her college organization, Fernandez-Ruiz volunteered to teach math, science, and reading skills in Payatas, a community in Quezon City, Philippines and home to one of the largest dump sites in the country. After graduation, she co-founded Rags2Riches together with a group of young professionals while working as the Program Assistant for the Youth Leadership & Social Entrepreneurship Program of the Ateneo School of Government.

Fernandez-Ruiz co-founded Rags2Riches after seeing rug-weavers (mostly women) in Payatas receive little profit for rugs they crafted from cloth and scrap foraged from the Quezon City dump site, due to middlemen controlling their supplies and sales. Rags2Riches created links with factories and warehouses to provide the artisans with fabric scrap materials and opportunity to sell their products directly to customers. The company also provides artisans with education in personal finance, nutrition, and health insurance.