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An Introduction

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Hi there 👋 I'm George, Founder of Honā, Managing Director of Faiā, and co-founder of The Pack. Just a few ventures created as part of my personal mission towards bridging gaps between communities & tech.

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I'm most recently known for facilitating a deal resulting in the world's first national digital ledger and infrastructure project on Bitcoin SV for the nation of Tuvalu. It is the first UN-stead nation to fully adopt a Bitcoin-based blockchain for its digital transformation efforts, and is also one of my ancestral homelands. 

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I'm Fijian-Indian, Tuvaluan-Samoan, an Australian citizen, and have an American accent due to being educated at an international school in Bangladesh. My career journey is just as diverse as my heritage: I started out aspiring to be a digital animator, but my first job resulted as a front-end developer. I then went on into sales, marketing, operations, community management, and finally, entrepreneurship. As a result of all these fields, it helped me get a good overview of what it takes to go from freelancer to startup to SME to enterprise.

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Advocating for People & Tech

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My skills with people ended up being a valuable asset within tech organizations. As my passion for community-building grew, and my ability to adopt new tools or technologies accelerated, I realized there were ever-widening gaps between the general population and emerging technologies. As such, my roles within companies started to specialize in quickly learning new tools, integrating them into teams, and then rolling them out organization (or community) wide. I merged and improved upon my skills in communications, negotiations, executive buy-in, corporate governance, pitching, organizational development, advocacy, and change management. This eventually led me to helping Slack, a popular productivity tool that was acquired by Salesforce for a record $27.7 billion, land their very first enterprise customer (IRESS) in Asia Pacific.

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Building Culture & Community

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My career has always captured some element of culture preservation or building communities. From championing team culture within an organization, to building communities around technology or brands. Looking back, there's always been some form of overlap. It's fascinating to see things come around full circle, since my high school Senior thesis paper was titled Bridging The Digital Divide for The Rural Poor of Bangladesh.

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Ultimately, I want to preserve intangible cultural heritage in a way that is empowering for both current and future generations. This stems from my efforts which began with an animated series I started in 2010 called Tales From Nanumea, which eventually got sponsored by Adobe.

Since then, I've been navigating my own Way, exploring pathways to achieve what I felt would come, but may not truly had a clear understanding of at the time. My varied interests in communities, culture, behavioral economics, emerging technologies, and more, have all converged into my personal mission of "bridging gaps" and "spreading harmony."

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Why "Digital Wayfinder"?

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The term "Wayfinder" is rooted in my Polynesian ancestry. It has to do with the art of wayfinding, or ocean navigation. My ancestors were mastering the open oceans way before most other civilizations, and had it down to a science that depended mostly on celestial navigation and intuitive guidance. They were the masters of wind and wave.

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"Historically, wayfinding refers to the techniques used by travelers over land and sea to find relatively unmarked and often mislabeled routes. These include but are not limited to dead reckoning, map and compass, astronomical positioning and, more recently, global positioning. Wayfinding can also refer to the traditional navigation method used by indigenous peoples of Polynesia. The ancient Polynesians and Pacific Islanders mastered the methods of wayfinding to explore and settle on the islands of the Pacific, many using devices such as the Marshall Islands stick chart. With these skills, some of them were even able to navigate the ocean as well as they could navigate their own land. Despite the dangers of being out at sea for a long time, wayfinding was a way of life." Wikipedia

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The prefix "digital" was added by my partner. In December, 2020, we were sitting down at a restaurant, talking about the news around Tuvalu becoming a client, when she came up with the idea of me being a "Digital Wayfinder" - a head nod to the unique combination of my Polynesian ancestry and my experience with emerging technologies. I thought it was brilliant and decided on the spot to make it part of my new identity for 2021 onward. It just felt right.

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Helping You Find Your "Way"

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My personal mission is to "bridge gaps" and "spread harmony". What that means in practice is assisting you (through advisory services or consulting) in improving your productivity, building communities, and integrating new tools or technologies wisely. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, or a C-Suite executive, I can help you find your "Way" through today's noisy digital ocean. 

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When not building businesses or communities, you'll find me enjoying tea, playing Go (weiqi), or making time for family and friends. Sometimes it's the simplest things that provide the greatest joy.

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Now it is time to give back. It is time to help you and others find your own Way.

I look forward to working with you.

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Current Ventures

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