Wizard of Cagayan

A POSITIVELY FILIPINO EXCLUSIVE

If you're playing video games, or watching movies or YouTube on your laptop, know that a Filipino made these capabilities possible. Diosdado "Dado" Banatao pioneered technologies that reduced the number of processors in a computer from hundreds to a single digit, thus enabling the development of small, efficient and affordable microcomputers. He and his team also innovated the graphics accelerator chip that led to breakthroughs in multimedia computing.

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“I’m happy with what I have. I’m not looking for any more. People give back when they think they have enough.”

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After his spectacular technological and financial successes as innovator and entrepreneur and later as venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, Banatao is focusing his activities and philanthropy towards helping the Philippines develop into a high-tech research and development nation. It is an ambitious and gargantuan task that he is shepherding through PhilDev, the foundation that he heads.

In this exclusive video interview for Positively Filipino by veteran broadcast journalist Lloyd LaCuesta, the Filipino titan of high tech talks about his roots and why he is now investing his energy and resources in helping the land of his birth. – Editors

Lloyd LaCuesta

Lloyd LaCuesta was the South Bay Bureau Chief of KTVU/Fox Channel 2 in the San Francisco Bay Area for more than 35 years. He retired last June 2012 and is currently an adjunct professor at San Jose State University. LaCuesta visited Badoc, Ilocos Norte in 2010 to see the village where his father grew up and to connect with relatives, only to find out that these relatives were living in San Jose, California!