(Credit: PARIMA) 

Introduction of Profile: Born and raised in the Philippines, Anina Seachon had always been drawn to the natural sciences and the environment. This initially led her to pursue geology at university, before eventually making the switch to business administration, a decision that would unexpectedly pave the way towards her dream career. 

Finding Her Way into Risk Management  

(Credit: Anina Seachon) 

Like many fresh graduates, Anina left university without a fixed idea of where her career would take her. With a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, she kept an open mind and joined BPI’s management trainee programme after being offered the opportunity through a university career fair. 

“As a fresh graduate, I didn’t really have the right experience or the right knowledge to make a decision. You won’t really know until you’re there, living the day-to-day of the job,” she said. 

Anina eventually found herself working as a Compliance Officer, a role that required her to navigate and understand numerous laws and regulations despite having no prior experience in compliance. 

“It was definitely a lot of pressure,” she recalled. 

While the learning curve was steep, the experience taught Anina the importance of perseverance and trusting the process. For Anina, resilience is something that can be developed. 

“I believe that your mental toughness is like a muscle. You need to train it,” she said. “There’s always something to be learned, whether you win or you don’t.” 

Her Dream Career 

After spending around four years in compliance, Anina began thinking about what she wanted to pursue next. 

Outside work, she became more involved in environmental causes, including volunteering with Climate Reality, where young people were trained on climate change and individual action, as well as participating in tree planting and clean-ups. 

At the same time, sustainability was rapidly gaining prominence across the corporate world. 

For Anina, this presented an opportunity to reconnect with the interests that had first led her to study geology, while drawing on the business experience she had since developed. 

“Corporations suddenly had the need to hire people, not necessarily scientists, but people who can bridge those two disciplines together,” she explained. 

When an opening emerged in BPI’s Environmental and Social Risk Management unit, Anina was ready. She spent most of the pandemic upskilling, such as completing the Sustainable Business Strategy certification course at Harvard Business School Online. 

“Opportunity comes to those who are ready,” she said. “If there’s something that you want to go after, but it’s not yet there, you just need to prepare yourself beforehand, so that when it comes, you’re ready to tackle it.” 

In 2022, she moved into environmental and social risk management, bringing together her early interest in the environment with the business and risk experience she had built throughout her career. 

For Anina, it felt like a “dream come true”. 

Bridging Sustainability and Banking 

Beach clean-up as an ESRM officer. (Credit: Anina Seachon) 

Today, Anina works in Environmental and Social Risk Management at BPI, where part of her role involves translating complex sustainability and climate-related issues into practical considerations within the banking context. 

“Why does the banking industry need to care about it? How does it affect our bottom line as a company, our clients? That’s basically my role,” she explained. 

As environmental and social risks become increasingly interconnected with traditional financial risks, financial institutions need to understand how environmental factors can affect both their clients and their own operations. 

This is particularly relevant in the Philippines, which is highly exposed to natural hazards, including floods and earthquakes. 

“We need to be able to prepare ourselves for those and be resilient,” Anina said. 

Beyond developing frameworks and policies, Anina’s role also involves helping different stakeholders understand why environmental and social risks matter to the business. For her, gaining this understanding and buy-in is critical to turning risk frameworks into meaningful action. 

Finding Meaning in the Bigger Picture 

After building her career at BPI across two different areas, what keeps Anina motivated is not simply enjoying what she does. 

She is realistic about the fact that even a meaningful career still comes with difficult days. 

“They say that if you love your job, you don’t have to work a day in your life. But personally, for me, I think that’s not true,” she said. “Even if you love your job, at the end of the day, it’s still a job.” 

Instead, on the days when motivation is harder to find, Anina reminds herself that the role she has today was once something she hoped for. 

“I really wanted a job that’s related to helping, in a way, with the environment. And this was already such a big blessing for me.” 

More importantly, she sees a connection between the decisions she makes at work and their impact beyond the walls of the bank. 

“It impacts communities. It impacts biodiversity. It impacts communities that may be affected by the projects that we decide whether to go through or not,” she said. 

“Looking at the bigger picture, that I’m having an impact that’s bigger than myself, that’s what keeps me motivated.”