Nanette Medved-Po (born January 21, 1970) is a philanthropist, businesswoman, and former actress. She was born in Hawaii to Russian and Taiwanese parents.[1] Medved-Po graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Finance and Entrepreneurship from Babson College in Massachusetts.[2] She is best known for playing the titular role in the 1991 film Darna directed by Joel Lamangan.[3] She married business tycoon Chris Po in 1999.[4]
In 2014, Medved founded Generation HOPE, a social enterprise that produces packaged water known as "Hope in a Bottle," "Hope in a Box", and "(Not Just) Tubig," and builds public school classrooms across the Philippines. It is the first B-Corporation certified company in the Philippines.[5][6]
In 2019, Medved founded PCX, a non-profit plastic credit program. PCX established a Plastic Pollution Reduction Standard and recycles plastic waste with programs that aim to reduce the flow of plastic pollution into nature.[7]
From 2007 to 2012, Medved served on the advisory board of Bantay Bata.[8] In 2012, she began to serve on the National Advisory Council of the World Wildlife Fund Philippines and in 2019, she was invited to serve on its board of trustees.[9] In July 2019, she began serving as part of the Board of Directors of Winrock International.[10]
Prior to her philanthropic work, Medved had a career as a commercial model and actress. In 1996, she left the Philippines to pursue studies in the United States.[11] In 2002, she decided to leave the entertainment industry to focus on her advocacy work.[12]
Personal life
Medved is of Russian and Chinese descent.In the 1990s, Nanette Medved defied convention when she married businessman Chris Po of the Century Pacific Group. Later, she returned to the spotlight not as an actress but as a philanthropist and social entrepreneur. She founded Generation Hope, which funds classroom construction through sales of Hope in a Bottle, and in 2019 launched Plastic Credit Exchange (HOPEx), a platform helping companies and consumers offset plastic waste. Her philanthropic work has earned recognition from Forbes and the Philippine House of Representatives.[13]
Recognitions
Nanette Medved has received both local and international acclaim for her work in philanthropy and sustainability. In 2023, Hope and Plastic Credit Exchange (PCX) were named among the world’s top 300 impact companies by the Real Leaders Impact Awards, alongside global brands such as Tesla, Ben & Jerry’s, and the Lego Group. That same year, she represented the Philippines at high-level global forums, including the United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution in Paris, the World Trade Organization Public Forum in Geneva, the Forbes Sustainability Leaders Summit in New York, and The Economist Global Plastics Summit in Bangkok. She has also been consistently named among Asia’s Most Influential by Tatler Philippines from 2021 to 2024.[14]
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