ANNIKA THUNBORG

Ambassador of Sweden

Embassy of Sweden in Manila

Dr. Annika Thunborg recently arrived in Manila, taking up her post as Sweden's Ambassador to the Philippines. Previously, she served as Ambassador to Mexico between 2016 and 2021. From 2013 to 2016, she served as Director of the Department of Non-Proliferation, Disarmament and Export Control at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Stockholm. Previously, between 2007 and 2013, she served as Spokesperson and Chief of Public Information at the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization at the United Nations in Vienna, Austria.

As a member of the Swedish Foreign Service, she also served at the Permanent Mission in Geneva and in the Foreign Minister's office.

Before joining the foreign service in 1997, she worked as an assistant professor at the University of Lund, Sweden, as a reporter at Swedish Television and as an editorial writer at various Swedish newspapers. Dr. Thunborg has a PhD in political science from the University of Lund and a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University in New York, USA. Dr. Thunborg is married to MSc. Aaron Tovish.

MARLA GARIN-ALVAREZ

Vice President

BDO Unibank Inc.

As VP for Sustainability, Marla heads the BDO Sustainability Office and drives the execution of the BDO Sustainable Finance Framework. She oversees policy formulation and programs review, as well as monitoring, tracking, and reporting of the Bank's environmental and social impact and initiatives, and produces the annual BDO Sustainability Report. She works closely with business groups, particularly with the Sustainable Finance Desk of the Institutional Banking Group, Investor Relations and Corporate Planning, Risk Management Group, and the BDO Foundation, as subject matter expert and advisor, to ensure the Bank's alignment of its policies and practices with global standards, regulations, and laws on sustainability reporting. She is also responsible for communicating sustainability initiatives to internal and external stakeholders, and represents BDO in external speaking engagements and forums.

Before joining BDO, Marla was Diversity & Inclusion Lead for news and information services provider Thomson Reuters, where she spent 11 years leading the execution of global strategies in diversity and inclusion, social impact, corporate responsibility, and corporate communications in Asia, then globally. Previously, she held senior corporate communication roles at tech firm Intel Corporation for its Asia operations; food and beverage group San Miguel Corporation; architecture, engineering and construction company Environments Global. She started her career at public relations firm Orendain & Associates where she designed communication campaigns for multinational banks, pharmaceutical companies, and non-government organizations. 

Marla is an experienced international speaker on gender, diversity and inclusion, and sustainability. She is a certified facilitator of the Google #IamRemarkable workshop for women, an Advisor of the Women Inter-industry Network (WIN), and former Board member of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Philippines.