Spending his formative years growing up in the remote Isaan region of Thailand, Midnight Poonkasetwattana, executive director of the APCOM Foundation, earned a rare scholarship to study in the UK. He says from an early age he was aware of social and financial inequality in society, which inspired him to study international development. He helped to establish the non-profit APCOM Foundation in 2007 as a leading Asia-Pacific HIV and LGBTQ community network contributing to the improvement in health and civil rights of LGBTQ communities across the region. Today the foundation counts over 200 organisation and partners collaborating across 30+ countries. Midnight was one of six Asian advocates honoured by IAPAC 150 as a Pioneer in AIDS Response and he was named an Obama Foundation Leader for Asia-Pacific in 2019. In turn, he instituted the HERO Awards to acknowledge the outstanding contributions of HIV and LGBT rights advocates across Asia-Pacific and raise funds for HIV prevention and the work of APCOM.