Nina Aguas, the executive chairperson of The Insular Life Assurance Company, Ltd. and head of its women empowerment program — aptly dubbed as the InLife Sheroes Advocacy and Movement — shares with PeopleAsia some valuable lessons she has learned along the way.
By Alex Y. Vergara
Behind that warm, welcoming smile is a seasoned veteran of the banking and insurance industries whose list of accomplishments in a career spanning nearly 50 years is long and varied. But if there’s one thing Nina Aguas would like to share with the world, especially with her fellow women, it is her conscious decision early on to never downplay her femininity or lose her unique sense of humor while trying to make her mark in the boardroom.
As executive chairperson of The Insular Life Assurance Company, Ltd., Nina is the first woman in InLife’s history to hold such a top position. Recognized by Forbes magazine as one of the “25 Asia Power Businesswomen” in 2019, she was also a member of the World Bank’s Advisory Council for Gender and Development from 2018 to 2021 — making her an ideal advocate of women empowerment as she heads the InLife’s Sheroes Advocacy and Movement.
With financial literacy and health and wellness geared towards women among its primary thrusts, the program has so far reached out and touched the lives of 7.6 million Filipinos (way beyond its initial target of one million women) through a series of free online and in-person seminars, held in partnership with various organizations for the past three years now.
And behind this growing movement is an empowered woman herself whose easy, self- effacing ways can both charm and disarm anyone who gets to know her up close.
“I was never a man,” the mother of five happily married children says with a hearty chuckle. “I wish I could tell you the difference between how a man and a woman leads. But there is a difference. Because of empathy and that innate maternal instinct, I guess we tend to read a certain situation more differently than our male counterparts. As for me, I’ve always embraced my womanhood from the very start, and not once did I think I was a lesser person because of it.”
Nor did Nina, a certified public accountant who finished her accountancy degree at the University of Santo Tomas in the early 1970s, try to think and make decisions like a man even when she was in leadership positions, working with some of the biggest banks and corporations here and abroad, including Singapore and New York.
Even while working in New York, a place where being gallant and generous with your compliments towards women could sometimes result in men receiving sexual harassment suits, says Nina, she expected male colleagues to open the door and pull a chair for her.
“I’ve worked and traveled all over the world,” Nina, shares. “Even when I was in a leadership position, say, with Citibank, I still expected the guys to pull a chair for me. At least, respect me for being a woman. Open the door for me.”
And if ever there were instances that required her to work harder, longer and smarter than most people in order to get ahead, Nina did it not to compensate for the fact that she’s a woman, but because “I wanted to.” Over the decades, she has managed a number of teams, including all-male ones, during her various stints in the corporate world.
And if ever members of her team, particularly the men, have any issues about being led by a woman, “it’s their problem, not mine,” adds Nina. For the most part though, her relationship with her subordinates, past and present, has generally been cordial and very professional. Still, there have been a number of instances in the past, no matter how subtle they were, that brought her face-to-face with certain realities on the ground.
Once, when she was traveling with a group of all-male, multi-ethnic subordinates, Nina, who was the only woman and Filipino in the contingent, could sense their reluctance at being seen with a female boss. It became evident as they made their way through Singapore’s Changi Airport to board their flight to Australia.
Once they reached the gate, Nina’s subordinates chanced upon a number of their friends who were also taking the flight. Rather than introduce her immediately as their boss, members of her staff chose to remain quiet, leading some of their friends to assume that the pretty little lady in front of them was the secretary.
She simply let it slide, a smiling Nina recalls, her eyes lighting up. “But when we boarded the plane, I turned left to business class and they all turned right to coach,” she adds with a laugh.
But seriously, Nina, who began her career in the mid-’70s at Sycip Gorres Velayo & Co. (SGV) as one of its first women-accountants in key positions, subscribes to a number of established truths that could benefit both men and women as they climb the corporate ladder. Her husband of 46 years, also a topnotch accountant, by the way, was her very first boss at SGV.
Being prepared, spending long hours doing her homework and thinking on her feet have certainly helped her move up, she says. But instead of waiting for that single breakthrough to propel you to the top, she advises today’s young careerists to make every opportunity a “step up” to reaching their goals.
“If it doesn’t work, you find another way,” Nina adds. “Opportunities will present themselves, but you have to be ready to say yes. Of course, there were also times when I had to decline, especially when circumstances weren’t in my favor or when I wanted another career trajectory. But you can’t decline too often. And if you do, do it politely and judiciously.”
And then there’s also that thing called luck. “Sometimes the best breaks and the biggest career opportunities happen because you were simply at the right place at the right time,” she says.
Every career and the circumstances behind such a career are different. There’s no one-size-fits-all formula one can either dispense or follow. But if Nina were to be pressed to give her two cents’ worth on such matters, she would always emphasize the need for people, regardless of their position, to be authentic and sincere, and to keep their integrity intact.
“Becoming a leader, requires loads of determination and perseverance. But despite all that hard work, don’t take yourself too seriously. The pressure will always be there, but life is not just about the bottomline. Of course, there will be road bumps along the way. Dealing with such setbacks involves a process. And if you have to go through a process, you might as well enjoy it,” Nina sums up.
