Yani Hornilla-Donato

Southeast Asia (SEA) Regional Lead Canva

Yani Hornilla-Donato is the Regional Lead for Canva in Southeast Asia. Since launching in 2013, Canva has grown to over 220 million monthly active users across 190 countries, with more than 400 designs created per second. 

Canva Philippines has over 850 employees across multiple specialties — design, marketing, social media, growth, operations, and customer support among others — working together on a mission to empower Filipinos to unleash their creativity through Canva. 

As the Regional Lead for Southeast Asia, Yani guides Canva's growth strategies within the region and enhances operations for strategic markets including Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines. 

Yani became part of Canva in 2015 as the first Recruiter in Manila, playing a key role in expanding the local team from 35 to its initial 100 members. Since then, she has initiated various programs and teams at Canva, including Talent Acquisition, Team Happiness (HR), Canva University (L&D), Internal Coaching, and the Vibe Team (Facilities & Construction, Food & Beverage, Events). Before taking on the role of country manager, she served as Canva’s Head of People in the Philippines. 

Today, her impact is felt across growing the Canva team mindfully, scaling a truly local campus, and pursuing user and community growth in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. 

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