SHERISA NUESA, ING FINEX CFO OF THE YEAR 2008 Breaking the glass ceiling

MANILA, Philippines - A woman in a man’s world is slowly becoming less of a novelty in this rapidly evolving digital age. But this may not be the case in the world of finance.

While many women enter the accounting profession and take the CPA exam, rising to become Chief Finance Officer (CFO) of a corporate organization is still more of an exception rather than the rule. Even in the United States, female CFOs in Fortune 500 companies constitute only less than 10 percent, according to the journal CFO Magazine.

This is why a lady CFO like Sherisa ‘Baby’ Nuesa is a rare gem. Not only did her career in the Ayala Group, the country’s oldest corporate house, span 35 years, with four initial public offerings (IPOs) to her name, she also bested her peers to earn the “ING FINEX CFO of the Year” title from global financial institution ING Bank, N.V. and the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) in 2008 – becoming the first woman awardee.

If being a woman on top of the testosterone-filled world of numbers is tough enough, try being a Filipina CFO at a time when the Philippines was an investment pariah. Back in the early nineties, Nuesa had her fill of curious stares as “foreigners were not used to seeing Filipino women in these high-level road show presentations.”

The CFO as a champion

Now a much sought-after speaker in regional and global conferences, Nuesa, however, does not harp on her gender whenever she takes the world stage. Instead, she waves the Philippine flag like a proud Olympian.

“We must go beyond (representing) our company and industry. We must always bear in mind that whenever we are able to help our country, this will all redound to the benefit of our businesses and widen our markets,” she said. “That’s why advocacy should be high on a CFO’s agenda.”

Performing the role of a goodwill ambassador for the Philippines is not that always easy, admitted Nuesa, who was a student activist during the First Quarter Storm. The country has certainly faced more than its share of challenges – from the 1980s debt crisis and the 1997 Asian financial crisis to the coup attempts and the hostage crisis in Luneta – and Filipino CFOs had been through everything, including today’s massive regulatory changes and game-changing globalization trends.

To Nuesa, these battles have left an indelible scar on Filipino CFOs that they must now wear like a badge of honor. “If you’re a Filipino CFO working in the Philippines, you not only deal with boardroom battles, but also with macroeconomic problems and political upheavals. In this sense, we have been battle-tested. We have a high EQ (emotional quotient). Give us any challenge and we will deal with it. And that’s something that people underestimate about us,” she said.

This “availability of adaptable talent” does not only exist in Philippines, Inc., but also in government, said Nuesa. In fact, if there is one story that makes this tough lady CFO’s eyes well up with tears, it’s about how the people of Manila Water have turned the former state-owned utility into one of the most awarded and celebrated success stories in Philippine corporate history.

Her career gamble

Fresh from her stint at Ayala Land, Inc., Nuesa became CFO of the utility company that was then just privatized. While the career move was “a gamble,” she was “looking for subsidiary action, which I found more exciting.”

In Manila Water’s case, the excitement turned into an initial shock. The company was awarded a 25-year contract to take over the operation of Manila’s East Zone, then home to five million people. Not only has it been losing 51 perent of its water supply in 2000, Manila Water also inherited almost 1,500 employees from the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), along with outdated infrastructure in some of the city’s poorest areas. Combined with currency devaluations and the impact of El Niño, the first few years of Manila Water’s operation would have made any CFO surrender. But not the battle-tested Nuesa.

Led by its then-president Antonino Aquino, the entire management team of Manila Water, including Nuesa, decided that people – and not numbers – must come first. Employees were enjoined to participate in corporate programs beyond their job descriptions to bring together a range of skills and experiences they have accumulated during their long tenure in the government agency. Except for those with “integrity issues” such as cases of dishonesty or corruption, no employee was fired by Manila Water, said Nuesa.

The company’s now multi-awarded “We Care” program also extended to the majority of its stakeholders who live in the urban poor areas. It may seem a strange choice for a company to extend a helping hand to those who were contributing to the water system losses through illegal connections. A traditional CFO would have immediately counted the beans, and not see the beanstalk.

Transformative CFO

Nuesa, however, saw it as a golden opportunity for a CFO to play a transformative role in society. “Majority of our customers live in the poorest areas of the city. They were at the mercy of vendors who sold water by the bottle or the drum at least five times the cost,” she said. Through the company’s ‘Tubig sa Barangay’ program, these households were legally connected at a reasonable rate, enabling Manila Water to reduce the amount of non-revenue water lost in the system and dramatically enhancing its revenue potential. “When I left the company in 2008, our non-revenue water (NRW) was already below 20 percent and the company was in very solid financial state,” Nuesa added.

Within five years after it started to turn in profits in 2001, Manila Water had its successful initial public offering (IPO) – joining the list of companies that Ms. Nuesa had taken public during her CFO career, after Ayala Land, Cebu Holdings Inc., Cebu Property Ventures Development Corp., and later, Integrated Micro-Electronics, Inc. (IMI). Proceeds from the IPO – which was hailed as “Deal of the Year” by award-giving bodies – and a peso corporate bond issued right after the 2008 global financial crisis, enabled Manila Water to replace all its old pipes and sustain its profitability.

More than bringing in the numbers and the recognition, Nuesa said Manila Water’s biggest achievement is instilling pride back in the workforce. “When we started, we have people who did not even have the instruments or equipment to locate a busted pipe because the government did not have the budget; they just relied on their institutional memory,” she said. “They may not be the most highly paid, but they became the most motivated. In fact, even now, Manila Water people are consistent champions in the Ayala Olympics,” an annual sportsfest participated in by all Ayala companies and subsidiaries.

Nation builder

Nuesa believes that nurturing talent within an organization is not just the role of HR. “As a CFO, you must lead your people and show an example. At the end of the day, you realize that you are not just a number cruncher, but a strategy builder,” she said.

From being a strategy builder in several companies under the Ayala Group where she recently retired, Nuesa is now taking on another role with more devotion and passion: a nation builder. As a Board member and Fellow of the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD), she staunchly advocates good corporate governance. She is also active in the Movement for Judicial Reforms, a joint initiative of FINEX and other business organizations. She is also a board of trustee/director in the ALFM Mutual Funds, the largest mutual fund in the country; Singapore’s Blackhorse Emerging Enterprises Fund; and Far Eastern University, where she graduated summa cum laude.

“Wherever we go, we must put our country first,” said the ING FINEX CFO of the Year 2008 awardee.

(Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of articles on the awardees of the ING FINEX CFO of the Year search, now on its sixth year to honor the country’s best chief finance officer. Aligned with this year’s theme, “The Filipino CFO: Rising to Global Challenges,” the series will feature insights and tips from the five awardees on how today’s CFOs can tackle unique and unprecedented set of circumstances in these uncertain times. To find out more about the ING FINEX CFO of the Year 2012 search, go to www.finex.org.ph.)