The Most Prominent Business Leaders of 2024
It is with great pride and excitement that we present the latest edition of The
Inc Digital Magazine, featuring our highly anticipated article: “The Most
Prominent business leaders of 2024.” This edition is a tribute to the
extraordinary business visionaries and trailblazers who have not only
reshaped industries but also propelled Asia into the forefront of global
economic growth.
As Asia solidifies its position as the new epicenter of business innovation, it is
essential to recognize the remarkable achievements of these leaders. From
tackling the pressing challenges of climate change to navigating the
complexities of infrastructure development and embracing the digital
revolution, these individuals have exemplified resilience, creativity, and
unwavering commitment to progress.
Their visionary ideas and entrepreneurial spirit have not only revolutionized
industries but also enriched lives and stimulated economic prosperity across
the region. They stand as shining examples of how passion, determination,
and adaptability can turn obstacles into opportunities.
As Asia embarks on a new era of technological advancement, it is paramount
to celebrate the boldness and ingenuity of business executives who embrace
disruption and lead with agility. Through this edition, we pay homage to their
invaluable contributions to the Asian community and beyond.
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to our esteemed readers
worldwide for their unwavering support. Your feedback drives us to
continuously deliver inspiring content. Together, let us celebrate the
triumphs and accomplishments of Asia’s finest leaders.

Creating Wealth for Stakeholder
Born in an upper-middle-class
family, Carlos Manuel Da Silva
Santos
chose
to
study
Economics. After achieving 18/20
values, Carlos started teaching at
a university and created his first
private company, where he made
his first million. However, in 2015
Carlos lost everything. He made
wrong
investments,
was
subjected to many scams that he
could not recognize, and lost
millions quickly.
Everyone he knew criticized his
way of living. But soon, things
changed; Carlos recovered and
continued doing the same.
“The capacity to think and work to
make things better, doing what I
enjoyed with passion, being
resilient,
and working with
principles were and are the best
things in the world. In the end,
the opportunities appear.”- says
Carlos.

Creating WeaCarlos Manuel Da
Silva Santos:
Carlos founded Ethos in
Portugal in 2012. During its
initial days, Ethos leased an
algorithm to major investment
funds that were paying royalties
to Ethos. When the organization
entered the market in 2014 and
2015, these investment funds
traded $300 billion through this
structure.
Thanks to the market’s volatility,
investment
funds
proposed
Ethos to operate in a different
structure that could help them
avoid market volatility. In order
to do that, they flowed the funds
to Ethos, which increased its total
assets.
Later in 2019, Carlos assumed
the position of an advisor for
Monetary Policy in Dollars.
Soon, the board of directors of
Ethos decided not to lease the
algorithm
anymore; instead,
Ethos itself decided to start
trading its own funds.
Ethos is currently present in 72
countries across the world.
Carlos has been directly involved
in the organization’s business
areas like project financing and
financial trading.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in
Economics and several Master’s
degrees in Finance, Banking
Accounting, and International
Taxation. As a reflection of his
professional and educational
excellence, he was recognized by
Men Leaders to Look Upto Award
(2021), the Africa Dubai Honours
Award for Excellence and
Leadership Prowess (2021), and the
Ernst & Young Award: Best
Economist (2016), and Banco de
Portugal Award (2015).
At first, Carlos’s goal was to guarantee
that investors could model financial
markets without making any losses in
financial investments. “I was trying to
utilize my proprietary algorithm, which
alerts in line with ‘enter and exit
positions in the commodities,
currency, bonds, futures and share
markets.”- he says. Using an aggressive
risk modulated strategy, Ethos spreads
and accumulates profits through
compounding, which helps it achieve
gains in a completely safe way that
could never be performed in the
market.
Carlos decided to diversify and invest
in project financing at that point, which
eventually allowed him to make long
term investments with fixed returns.
He aimed to bring capital to various
sectors that other financial entities
were not focused on, trying to
understand why.
“Why would someone not invest in
South Africa, Laos, Swaziland, or
Brazil? Soon I realized that the
macroeconomic and operational risk
related to such entities was the
reason.”
Carlos soon understood that a financial instrument issued by a bank allows the
seller to migrate the operational and macroeconomic risk to the financial market.
This eventually allowed him to have a net asset discounted to the present value
of the financing to not need to be 100 % of the investment.
He says,
Helping Clients
Tackling Challenges
All
countries,
economies, and
companies face challenges. The
pandemic has been a challenge for
Ethos and the entire global banking
system in general, Carlos took this
opportunity to create a new
Ethos.He says, “We created a totally
new and innovative way to secure
ourselves, and it is 100 % scalable to
any country and any bank, even
those that are not clients.It does not
depend on banking rules at the
moment of execution.
The
structure
in
question
decentralized the intervention of the
banks and put the transaction at a
purely
commercial relationship
level.” Carlos explains that the past
year and a half have been a hectic
year for the entire team. The team
used this time to restructure the
entire Group. This crisis allowed
Carlos and other team members to
think about themselves, what they
could do, and how to change it.
Currently, the team’s mindset is
entirely different, and everyone has
a clear idea that a crisis can also
become an opportunity for some. It
allowed Ethos to structure its
business, which has led to the
company’s best performance in its
entire history.
Additionally, the whole team of Ethos
has recreated the best version of its
Group with unique and innovative ways
to secure its positions, which they
probably would never try to create if
they were not facing these challenges.
Helping Employees
to be Productive
Carlos says, “Our human resources are
the most valuable asset that we have.
In such way to allow them to maximize
their thinking capacity and innovate
know how we need to create the
environment for that.” To do that,
Ethos tries to understand their
personal and professional needs
guaranteeing that it misses nothing
about them and their families, which
will allow them to stay focused 24/7.
Ethos is well known for the quality of
its people, and its exceptional results
show how differentiated it is.
“We have an abundance of talent, no
doubt, but beyond that, we also have a
distinctly collaborative culture, which
we have worked hard to preserve over
the course of the pandemic. We have
welcomed thousands of new potential
clients to our firm in the past few
years, and it was important to us that
they experience first-hand what it’s like
to be Ethos.”- adds Carlos