Coach, and host of Beyondreps.
Jay came to Saudi Arabia nine years ago because he was, in his own words, pretty stagnant and bored back home. He is a nurse by training who never practised, a graphic designer, and a coach who had already run a CrossFit-style gym in the Philippines before he arrived. He now manages a gym in Riyadh and the fifteen coaches in it.
The part worth knowing is what he built alongside it. Beyondreps is his podcast, and it is about expatriates working in health and wellness telling their own stories without the gloss. That is an unusual thing to make here, and a useful one: most of what an arriving person reads about this country is written by people who do not live in it.
He is also clear-eyed about the version of himself the region expects. Filipinos living abroad, he says, are often seen as hardworking people-pleasers. He is neither apologetic about the first nor interested in the second.