Catherine Dizon is the Regional Head of Legal of RedDoorz, a leading hotel online booking platform in Southeast Asia.

During her downtime, she enjoys cooking and playing with four of her cute Pomeranian dogs. For some adrenaline-infused fun, she goes on a 3-day military-simulated airsoft game together with friends and unleashes her "She-Hulk" persona that you'll never see in those big smiles.

👋🏼 How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?

At RedDoorz, we partner with property owners to help increase their visibility and boost their occupancy rates by advertising on different online and offline channels. We also help rebrand the property and make sure our partner hotels comply with the standard services RedDoorz usually offers.

Aside from the usual tasks of being a lawyer in keeping the company out of trouble, I also make sure that we are on top of the latest news (the pandemic was a big one for our industry!) This is primarily to avoid risky situations and see how emerging technologies affect the business, especially from the legal side.

🧐 What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?

I am short! (4'11), but I am a black belter in Taekwondo, and one of the hobbies I enjoy is playing airsoft. So I'm your typical short BUT terrible (in a good way, if that makes sense) kind of person ;)

Since I enjoy playing airsoft so much, I thought of putting the hobby into good use by enlisting with the Philippine Army where I got trained in a lot of things, including search and rescue. I'm very happy I equipped myself with these skills that I, later on, was able to use when disaster struck two years ago.

🏆 What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?

I have been recently promoted to the Regional Head of Legal for RedDoorz. My shy-introverted self from years ago would never have imagined doing this.

But thanks to helpful articles and pushing myself outside of my comfort zone, I realized there's actually more exciting stuff than what should be feared when it comes to trying new things.

🔍 What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?‍

The boom of Crypto, Machine Learning, AI and all the other technological advances.

It's very interesting to know how these new technologies will come into play in general and how they will have an impact not only on how businesses operate but also on our roles and how we will need to adjust.

Whether it's a friend or foe, these technological advances are absolutely coming, and we should all prepare ourselves and our careers to make sure we efficiently grow with them.

💼 What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry?

Focus on learning, and the rest will follow.

If you keep an open and always curious mind, you will find yourself exploring ideas that are outside your current boundaries and will achieve new heights. Forget about your fears because, chances are, they aren't real.

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🗣 What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours?

Cooking, Airsoft, Practical Shooting and Dogs.

🎥 What's your favorite movie/TV show?

Big Bang Theory, She-Hulk, You've Got Mail

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🍨 What's your go-to ice cream flavor?‍

Caramel Pecan, Avocado!