Thiri Thant Mon

Business leader, Change Agent, Connector, Entrepreneur, Global soul, Idea generator, Parent, World traveler

Thiri Thant Mon is the Managing Partner of Pegu Partners, a capital and strategy advisory and investment firm focused on Myanmar. She also serves as the CEO of the Myanmar Institute of Directors and runs City Invest, an investment platform in conjunction with City Holdings, Myanmar's leading supermarket retail business. She has over 20 years of experience in the US, UK and Myanmar, including as an investment banker with Morgan Stanley in London and the member of the senior management team at Yoma Strategic Holdings in Myanmar. She is a board member of Dawn Microfinance Myanmar and a trustee for Turquoise Mountain Foundation, Yangon Heritage Trust and Doh Eain. She is a proud organiser of TEDxYangon. She holds a BA in Economics from William & Mary and an MBA from the London Business School.

Education, empowerment and the transition of Myanmar into a vibrant member of the global community

Positive seeds planted in the right minds grow into a movement that benefits all of society.

Even if you impact one person - it’s worth it. I heard this from a veteran TEDx organiser. He said it was about seeing the light of understanding, the light of passion shine in people’s eyes. I wrote this in October 2018 after we hosted our third TEDx event. As I scanned the audience from backstage, those flickers of light told me - hey, it was worth it! When I started my TEDx journey in 2015, I thought I will do it for three years - enough for the movement to gain some momentum. In the weeks leading up to each event, I am convinced I am crazy. I have a demanding career, two young children, responsibilities from other philanthropic projects I support. So many balls in the air that I cannot drop and TEDx takes so much time and effort. I was motivated to get a TEDx license and become an organiser because I have a deep passion for education combined with a deep sorrow that Myanmar’s education system is woefully inadequate to prepare us for the interconnected world today. This has been compounded by decades of isolation and those of us who have been lucky enough to get out of the country and be exposed to the world are acutely aware that there are so many ideas and innovations in the world today that we need to catch up to as a society. I started TEDx because of my passion for knowledge and freedom of ideas, the desire to stimulate positive conversations in Myanmar. To give a literal stage for ideas that people have not heard before. And because deep down, I believe it matters to our society. Along the way, I gained something unexpected. I discovered amazing people who became great friends. My fellow team members - present and past - who are as crazy as I am to give time, so much of it, and pour passion and professionalism into our endeavor. Our awe-inspiringly brave speakers. Our enthusiastic volunteers. Patrons offering support. TEDsters and TEDxers, a global community of dreamers who are doers, liberals who are realists. My tribe. People who know me best know that I am a passionate individual. They also tell me they have never seen me more happy and passionate than when I talk about TEDx. My eyes light up and my face glows. It is the flicker in my own eyes and the impact TEDxYangon has on me, that makes it all worth it. Bring on year four!

Appreciating humour, hiding my inner nerd.