SentBe(센트비) - 센트비안 인터뷰 SentBe(센트비) SentBian Story 페이지입니다.
SentBe(센트비) - 센트비안 인터뷰
SentBe(센트비) SentBian Story 페이지입니다.
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Connecting the Unseen Paths of Cross-Border Money
Global Business | Network Partnerships | Andrea Jescia Aquilizan
Every time money crosses a border — from Korea to somewhere across the world — there's an invisible system working to make sure it arrives safely and on time. Finding local partners, opening new routes, and keeping them fast and reliable: that's the job of Andrea Jescia Aquilizan, who leads SentBe's Network Partnerships team, now in her tenth year with the company.
She joined as an intern in 2016, back when the Philippines was the first country SentBe launched its overseas remittance service to, and has since grown into the leader who oversees partnerships worldwide. The years she spent close to customers early on still pay off today — at the negotiating table with global financial institutions, that experience is a real asset. She has an eye for finding the right partner, but she also reads the quiet urgency of someone on the other end, waiting for their money to arrive. Turning that quiet worry into real peace of mind is, in the end, what her work is about.
What does your role at SentBe involve?
On the Network Partnerships team, I manage our local payout partners and ensure they process and pay out our customers' money in the chosen receiving country. There are lots of ways to receive money — bank deposit, e-wallet, cash pickup — and even for the same method, there are several local partners offering it. So I look closely at which partner's fees, exchange rates, and processing speed are the best fit for our customers. And when we expand into a new country or open a new channel, I lead the whole process of finding the right partner and connecting them to SentBe's system.
It's invisible to customers, but it's the core infrastructure that decides how fast and how well remittance works in each country. If I had to sum up my job in one line, it's 'paving the best road for our customers to seamlessly send their money.' Because in the end, working with good partners is what shapes the experience our customers have.
“We make the routes that are already open faster and more reliable, and open new ones where we haven't reached yet. All that constant back-and-forth with partners pays off, in the end, as customers send their money with peace of mind.”
With so many global partners to keep up with, your days must be packed. What does a typical day look like?Because of the time difference, my mornings usually start with the emails and messages our overseas partners sent overnight. With so many partners in different countries, everything lands at once, so I label things and sort out what's urgent. I have a rule for myself — if something takes less than five minutes, I just do it right away instead of putting it off — and clearing those quickly sets the rhythm for my day. The rest is filled with internal sync meetings and video calls with partners. The majority of my job is being the bridge between our teams and partners, lining up different views and closing the gaps. On quieter days, I step back and think about how to make the service better — keeping the routes we already have running smoothly, while looking for new ways to cut costs and speed things up.
You started in Customer Experience (CX), moved through marketing and operations, and now lead partnerships. How do these steps of your career come together?If there's one word that runs through my whole career, it's 'service.' The teams changed, but the question never did: how do we give customers a better experience when they send money? In CX and marketing, I was right at the front, dealing with our product and our customers. In operations and partnerships, I got to work on the framework underneath the service — the part people don't see. My time with customers in CX gives me a clear yardstick when I'm negotiating with partners. Beyond the numbers, I know the things customers won't compromise on — like knowing their money will arrive on time, and getting a quick response when something goes wrong. Looking back, keeping 'the customer' at the center in every role is what's become the foundation for building partnerships that work for both sides.
“A strong partnership is what creates a better experience for customers. That's exactly why we're so particular about terms and responsiveness, and why we keep digging to find good partners.”
Of the partnerships you've recently closed, which project stands out the most?
It's our partnership with GCash in the Philippines. GCash is a fast-growing financial service there, and one of the channels our customers like to use when they send money home. The C2C Marketing function and I were confident that having a direct partnership would make our operations more efficient and let us offer better pricing for our customers. Once we got going, though, it took careful, thorough work across Legal, Technical, and Security functions. There were countless discussions, but it really helped that my colleague and I could understand the partner's local language and culture and talk to them directly. This connection allowed us to remain cooperative and stay in sync with each other.
The GCash partnership came together because so many internal teams pulled in the same direction. After all that time and shared effort, I feel we built a more reliable channel for our customers to send money. Seeing that long process turn into a positive customer experience was worth it.
I'm curious about your own way of building trust and working through conflict with partners from different countries and cultures.
Working with colleagues from all over from early on, I learned how to take differences in stride. So with overseas partners, I'm always honest but careful about how I come across, because my words and attitude represent SentBe. Before we get into the hard business talk, I break the ice with a bit of small talk, and when partners visit our Korea office, I try to close the distance over a meal.
Of course, the hardest part is usually the people, not the work itself. When I meet someone whose work style and priorities are completely different from mine, a project can stall. When that happens, instead of getting into it emotionally, I stop and try to see it from their side. Asking myself 'what do they really want?' or 'what pressure might they be under?' often loosens the knot. And if we still can't meet in the middle, I set the emotion aside and just focus on getting the work done professionally. You can't make everyone 100% happy, but what matters is being a partner they can count on.
“Plans can always fall apart. What really counts is not panicking when they do — and how fast you can find the next way forward with what you've got right now.”
What do you think it really takes to do this job well?
Communication, multitasking, and problem-solving — those are the three. The kind of communication I mean isn't just talking well; it's being a two-way communicator. My idea might not be the most efficient solution, or it may require extra work for an internal team. Partnership work touches almost every department, so you have to keep listening, keep aligning, and build trust both ways.
Multitasking is a must too, because I'm juggling integrations for different countries, a flood of messages, and surprise issues all at once. And then there's problem-solving. No matter how carefully you prep a launch, something can still throw it off — a regulation, an outside factor. When that happens, instead of panicking or freezing up, I try to quickly figure out the root cause and the most efficient thing we can do with what we have, and adapt from there.
You've now been with SentBe for a decade. What has kept you here all this time?I started as an intern through a Filipino friend from university, right around the time SentBe was just beginning its first overseas remittance to the Philippines. Since then I've been through the company's ups and downs, big and small, and grown into a professional along the way. I still remember how it felt to move from a small office into our own proper space in Yeouido. But more than anything, what's kept me here is the people. I've met colleagues who became my friends inside and outside the office, and superiors I genuinely respect and look up to. Whenever things got hard enough that I thought about giving up, the feeling of 'I want to keep going a bit longer with these people' pulled me back.
You're completely at home in the organization now, but when you first joined, communication and a new work environment must have been a challenge.
Early on, I did struggle sometimes to keep up with the Korean business terms and work culture. But my colleagues never let the language gap leave me out of important discussions. They patiently explained the business terms, and I did my part by asking and answering in Korean to close the gap. The company helped too — every internal announcement went out in both Korean and English, which meant a lot to other foreign colleagues and me.
Recently, some colleagues from our Singapore and Indonesia offices visited Korea, and even if we met each other face-to-face for the first time, it felt like we already had a strong working bond. For a company that builds borderless remittance, borders and backgrounds don't count for much inside the company either.
In the end, I think the biggest thing is that SentBe made inclusion part of its culture early on. The solid visa support and benefits that help global talent settle in are a real point of difference from other remittance companies. As we grow and new people come on board, I hope this culture of inclusivity and respect is continuously nurtured.
“Opening new routes matters — but so does keeping them stable. Building a solid, win-win setup with partners is what really grows a partnership.”
Are there goals you'd like to achieve going forward?These days I'm busy opening up new business routes, but I'm also thinking about how to connect them more reliably. Even when we open a single route, it's about cutting down the operational work it takes and setting things up so all stakeholders win.
Finally, a word for anyone dreaming of working in Network Partnerships?Partnership work is a demanding role — you're reading the flows behind the data and coordinating technical requirements too. Priorities shift all the time, so you always need a Plan Z ready. But if you're someone who isn't scared of change and can roll with it, then with the great people here at SentBe, you'll get to play on a much bigger stage than you'd expect.
