29 May 2026 –– The Pan-Asia Risk and Insurance Management Association (PARIMA) successfully concluded its Manila Masterclass on 21 May 2026, bringing together risk professionals to explore emerging risks shaping the Philippines and the broader Asia-Pacific business landscape.
The masterclass began with a session conducted by PARIMA’s President, Annacel Natividad, and PARIMA’s Co-founder, Director and General Secretary, Steve Tunstall, titled “From Buying Insurance to Selling Your Risk.” The session explored how risk managers can engage insurers more effectively by focusing on risk quality, data credibility, retention design, and aligned incentives.
Following this, the masterclass moved into partner-led sessions, splitting into three concurrent streams.
The first stream, “Weather and Workforce: Managing People Risk Amid Climate Volatility in the Philippines,” led by Aon, explored how extreme weather conditions are reshaping workforce risk in the country. The session highlighted how these impacts translate into people risk, financial loss, and reputational exposure, while outlining practical strategies to help organisations shift from reactive responses to more proactive and strategic workforce risk management.
“Across both climate and geopolitical risk, the message for organisations is the same: these are core business risks that need active management. The session highlighted the value of combining better data and practical resilience measures to make more informed decisions and strengthen continuity planning in a more volatile environment,” said Vicky Hackett, Chief Commercial Officer, Philippines, Aon.
Running concurrently, “De-Risking the Cyber Minefield – Philippine and Global Trends,” led by AXA XL, examined the increasingly complex cyber landscape shaped by evolving regulations, rising board-level accountability, and geopolitical threats across Asia-Pacific. The session covered key developments in data privacy and breach response, including insights from the Philippines’ Data Privacy Act of 2012 and regional frameworks, alongside emerging case law trends. It also explored how cyber insurance functions during incidents, highlighting coverage gaps and the importance of proactive risk measures to strengthen organisational resilience.
“AI accelerates innovation but also creates new vulnerabilities, especially amid rising geopolitical tensions, resulting in increased cyberattacks on organisations and critical infrastructure. Risk managers need to enhance cyber resilience, proactively address AI-driven threats, and incorporate geopolitical risks into their strategies to safeguard assets, ensure continuity, and maintain stakeholder trust,” said Sam Bye, Head of Cyber – Asia and the Middle East at AXA XL.
Alongside this, “Financing the Energy Transition: Parametric Insurance as a Strategic Lever,” led by Descartes Underwriting, explored how organisations can leverage parametric insurance to enhance the resilience and reliability of renewable energy projects. The session highlighted how organisations can mitigate critical risks across both construction and operational phases, while demonstrating how risk solutions can translate into tangible financial outcomes. Through an interactive simulation, participants gained practical insights and actionable strategies to strengthen project financing and support long-term sustainability.
“During the session, we explored how our parametric natural catastrophe and extreme weather solutions are reshaping the energy transition in Asia. By moving beyond traditional asset protection to actively mitigate revenue volatility, our solutions provide the financial predictability required to de-risk and accelerate renewable energy investments across the region,” said Wee Beng Seow, Head of Southeast Asia at Descartes Underwriting.
Following the networking lunch, the afternoon sessions continued with “Risk & Resilience Engineering: Developing Adaptive Capabilities that Deliver Measurable Value,” led by Willis, a WTW business. The session explored how organisations are shifting from traditional risk engineering towards a more integrated, data-driven approach to risk and resilience. Participants gained practical insights into managing interconnected risks across technology, climate, supply chains, and geopolitics, while enhancing resilience and delivering measurable value.
“Companies recognise the limits of traditional risk engineering and the need for resilience-focused approaches. By integrating resilience engineering with actuarial modelling, risk quantification, and total cost of risk analysis, we deliver data-driven insights to help organisations manage increasingly complex, interconnected risks,” said Kevin Snowdon, Head of Engineering, Risk & Analytics in Asia at Willis.
Alongside this, “Resilience by Design: Steering the Organisation Through Climate Volatility,” led by Zurich resilience solutions, explored how organisations can embed resilience into enterprise risk management through interactive, scenario-based simulations. The session challenged participants to make real-time decisions under climate shocks, highlighting impacts on strategy, operations, and financial performance, while reinforcing the importance of integrating resilience into decision-making.
“Extreme weather and climate change are highly topical in Southeast Asia due to increasing urbanisation and industrialisation, as well as its importance to the global supply chain. Our team used a highly interactive gamified approach that helped delegates understand how to use hazard, exposure, and vulnerability data to identify high-risk locations and develop a resilience plan at site level, which demonstrated the use and effectiveness of physical solutions to ensure protection of the business and workforce in order to make assets insurable, said Amar Rahman, Global Head Climate & Sustainability Solutions, Zurich Resilience Solutions.
Running concurrently, “The Illusion of Readiness – No Plan Survives the Crisis: Building Decision-Making and Crisis Management Capabilities That Work When Plans Don’t,” led by Marsh, challenged conventional approaches to crisis preparedness. The session explored why organisations that appear prepared often fall short in real crises, highlighting decision-making under pressure and what truly crisis-ready organisations do differently, while equipping participants with practical frameworks to strengthen response capabilities.
“In today’s unprecedented risk landscape, many Asia-based organisations are strengthening crisis plans, businesses continuity frameworks, and risk registers. Yet real-world disruptions can quickly outpace even well-developed plans. This masterclass examines why ‘prepared’ organisations still falter, how leaders make decisions under pressure, and what actual crisis-ready risk teams do differently,” said Felix Titherley, Asia Crisis Management Lead at Marsh.
Together, the sessions reflected PARIMA’s 2026 theme, “The New Risk Order,” highlighting how interconnected risks across climate, cyber, and organisational resilience are reshaping how organisations approach risk management and decision-making.
Next-Gen Risk Takers Continues in Manila
The masterclass also featured the Next-Gen Risk Takers challenge, where emerging risk professionals presented their ideas to a panel of judges and a live audience.
The three finalists who took centre stage were:
- Susan Lim, Risk Analyst at PT Astra Honda Motor
- Alexis Huebert J. Dolor, Lead Expert – Insurance Claims Management at Globe Telecom Inc.
- Lean Camille Lumabas, Manager, Enterprise Risk Management at Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc.
After a compelling round of presentations, the judges deliberated and crowned Alexis Huebert J. Dolor as the winner of the Next-Gen Risk Takers – Manila Edition.
Next-Gen Risk Takers is a speaking challenge for emerging risk professionals to share their risk-related learning and stories to a live audience.
Winners of the challenge will be awarded with a subsidised trip and an opportunity to speak at the PARIMA Conference in Singapore, from 14 to 15 October 2026.
For more information on upcoming PARIMA Masterclasses and events, visit https://parima.org/
ABOUT PARIMA
The Pan-Asia Risk and Insurance Management Association (PARIMA) is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to advancing the risk management profession across Asia-Pacific. Through its events, partnerships, and educational initiatives, PARIMA empowers risk professionals with resources, connections, and knowledge to navigate today’s complex risk landscape. With more than 2,600 members representing over 1,300 companies, PARIMA collaborates with 32 partners to foster resilience, growth, and dialogue within the APAC risk management community.
Media Contact:
Louisa Seow
Content Journalist
PARIMA
louisa.seow@parima.org
+65 8013 0740
