Celebrated furniture designer Kenneth Cobonpue is planning to open his own furniture stores in Europe after building a network of more than 60 stockists across the region.

Cebu-born Cobonpue had his international reputation boosted after serving as creative director for the welcome dinner of the 2015 Apec Summit and designed the “Yoda chairs” used by Barack Obama, Xi Jinping, and other leaders.

Cobonpue already has a flagship store in Makati, another in Cebu and one in New York City. Now he says he wants to open showrooms in Germany and Portugal next year, and possibly in Hong Kong.

His business is scaling up with the support of international non-profit group Endeavor, which supports high-impact entrepreneurs to help them grow and thus transform emerging economies – taking a leaf from the evolution of California’s Silicon Valley.

Cobonpue and his business partner Christopher Reiter were both chosen as Endeavor entrepreneurs by the Bali International Selection Panel last year, connecting them to mentoring from over 3000 business leaders across the globe.

According to a report in Rappler, Endeavour put together an advisory board to help the furniture makers focus on building a luxury brand targeting developed markets like the US, and building systems and processes needed to run a successful global business.

“Endeavor has really helped us look at the company and asked us questions which we should have asked when we started. And so, we’re looking at the company and trying to see what’s our purpose, why are we here basically and what can we offer to the world,” said Cobonpue.