Kenneth Abante is the Deputy Chief of Staff to the Philippines's Secretary of Finance Cesar V. Purisima. He has managed and assisted in a wide array of the finance department's reform initiatives in revenue and infrastructure, among others, the passage of the sin tax reform law, customs reform, local finance professionalization, the establishment of the Fiscal Intelligence Unit, and the pending passage of the public private partnership bill. He graduated from the Ateneo de Manila University in 2012 as Class Valedictorian, Program Awardee of the Management Engineering program, with a minor degree in philosophy. He was awarded one of the Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines in 2012. Outside of work, he is passionate about recruiting top talent into the civil service, and co-founded Bagumbayani Initiative, a group of young civil servants who aim to market the government service as a purposeful and practical career option.