Haidee Plopenio’s 29-year career at Pru Life UK has moved across technology, business analysis, project management, risk management and business continuity. Her path offers a practical lesson for professionals: experience in different functions can add up to a role that depends on understanding both systems and people.
Now the company’s Head of Business Continuity Management, Plopenio helps teams prepare for disruptions so Pru Life UK can keep serving customers, employees and other stakeholders. She describes the work as coordination and readiness, rather than a function confined to formal plans.
Her earlier roles gave her different tools: technology brought structure, business analysis sharpened her understanding of needs, project management taught coordination and delivery risk, and risk management encouraged foresight. Plopenio says opportunities to move across disciplines prepared her for the work she does now.
Preparedness is part of protection
Business continuity can be easy to overlook when operations are running smoothly. Plopenio finds meaning in that quiet work because preparation matters most when a disruption puts customers’ trust and access to services under pressure.
“What I find most fulfilling is knowing that the work we do, although often behind the scenes, helps protect what matters most: Our customers, employees, and the trust that they place in Pru Life UK,” she said. “In business continuity, you may not always see the impact immediately, but when something happens, preparedness becomes very real.”
That experience has broadened her view of protection beyond insurance coverage. It also means helping families prepare for uncertainty and keeping services available when circumstances become difficult.
“Protection means being ready and being present when people need you most. Protection is not only about products or processes,” Plopenio said. Her work in continuity and resilience, she added, helped her see how preparedness supports customers’ ability to rely on the company during difficult moments.
Coordination depends on people
When a company faces an unexpected event, continuity work crosses departmental lines. Plopenio points to teams coming together quickly as a defining feature of her experience at Pru Life UK.
“In crisis management and business continuity, I have seen teams from different departments come together quickly during challenging situations,” she said. “That shared sense of purpose and teamwork is one of the reasons I have stayed.”
Her account also connects operational resilience to the concerns families face: illness, income loss, education costs, emergencies and natural calamities. Disruptions can affect whether people can reach important services, so continuity planning has consequences beyond internal operations.
Plopenio says the company’s financial advisors help make insurance more accessible by guiding customers according to their needs, life stage and goals. She also sees an opportunity to explain protection in terms people recognize in daily life.
“The more we connect insurance to real-life concerns, family, health, education, emergencies, and peace of mind, the more people see it not as an expense but as an act of care.”
Career growth needs trust and opportunity
As Pru Life UK marks its 30th anniversary, Plopenio hopes it will keep building resilience, widen access to protection and invest in its employees. Her own progression, she says, reflects what can happen when an organization gives people trust, opportunity and a sense of purpose.
“My journey with Pru Life UK has taught me that protection is not just about policies or plans; it is about people,” she said. “It is about preparing today so that families, customers, employees, and communities can face tomorrow with more confidence.”
For Plopenio, that makes investing in people part of the work itself. The range of roles she has held points to a useful career takeaway: skills gained in one discipline can become essential in another, especially when the job calls for preparation, coordination and care for the people a business serves.
