Education and early career Purisima earned his bachelor's degree in accountancy at
De La Salle University and pursued an
MBA with specialisation in international economics, finance, and marketing at the
Kellogg School of Management of
Northwestern University in
Evanston, Illinois, USA. Before his stint in government, Purisima, a Certified Public Accountant, has had extensive work experience in public accounting and finance both in the Philippines and abroad. From 1999 to 2004, he served as chairman and Managing Partner of the country's largest professional services firm
Sycip, Gorres, Velayo & Co. (a member firm of
Andersen Worldwide until 2002 and presently member firm of
Ernst & Young Global). From 2001 to 2002, he was also Area Managing Partner for Asia-Pacific for Assurance and Business Services of Andersen Worldwide, making him the first and only Filipino so far to head the Area practice of a Big 4 accounting firm. In Ernst & Young Global, he was a member of both the Global Executive Board and Global Practice Council.
Government service in the Arroyo administration (2004-2005) In 2004, President Arroyo appointed him Secretary of Trade and Industry. A year after, he was appointed Secretary of Finance. Purisima held the post for 5 months until his resignation together with nine other Cabinet ministers, a group known as the "
Hyatt 10" which include then-
Education Secretary Florencio Abad, the late
Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin, and
Secretary of Social Welfare and Development Corazon "Dinky" Soliman.
Return to the private sector (2005-2010) Together with members of the Hyatt 10, Purisima founded the International Center for Innovation, Transformation and Excellence in Governance (INCITEGov) as a trustee. INCITEGov engages in democratic politics to secure key changes in governance yielding development gains, and to scale up citizen engagement in politics. Purisima also ventured into various entrepreneurial pursuits.
Government service in the Aquino administration (2010-2016) On 30 June 2010, he returned to the finance portfolio in the cabinet of President
Benigno S. Aquino III. With Purisima leading Aquino's economic management team, the Philippine economy has kept a 6-year running growth average of 6.2%, its fastest run in 40 years. Under the Aquino administration, the Philippines has also been enjoying strengthening investor and consumer confidence, upgraded to a notch above investment grade by
Standard & Poor's and to investment grade by
Moody's,
Fitch, the National Information and Credit Evaluation (NICE) Investors Service, and the
Japan Credit Rating Agency. With 24 positive credit rating actions since 2010, the Philippines is so far the world's most upgraded sovereign. Increased confidence on the Philippines’ prospects has led to a sixfold jump in foreign direct investments (FDIs), from $1.07 billion in 2010 to $6.20 billion in 2014. Under Purisima's watch, the Philippines' debt as a percentage to GDP fell to a historic low of 44.8% as of 2015, a 10 percentage point decline from the 54.8% posted in 2009 before the Aquino administration took over with a governance philosophy espousing fiscal responsibility. Purisima was also a key champion of the Sin Tax Reform Law passed in 2013, which as of October 2015 has already raised an additional P149.5 billion in incremental revenues from excise taxes on the consumption of tobacco and alcohol products, which are then poured into the Aquino administration's universal health care program. As of 2015, the national Philippine government's deficit was contained to a healthy 0.9% of GDP, while tax effort as a percentage of GDP rose from 12.1% in 2010 to 13.7%, achieved through revenue administration reforms and tougher enforcement. Purisima also oversaw a vast expansion of fiscal space, growing government revenues by 75% in 5 years from P1.208 trillion to P2.109 trillion, enabling the education budget of the government to double within the period. The health budget was also tripled, resulting to improvements in health facilities and the expansion of national health insurance coverage to 93.5 of 100 million Filipinos, up from only 47.1 million Filipinos in 2010. The social services budget, used to fund the country's successful
conditional cash transfer (CCT) program named the
Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), has within 5 years shot up by 9 times to cover what is now 4.62 million households. In institutionalizing an efficient turnover, Purisima simplified the agency's body of issuances by repealing 3,771 of its 4,323 outdated or incoherent department orders and collapsing 273 outdated committees from its 356 internal and interagency groups. Purisima also turned over a manual of key information and an economic data bank, as well as renovated the 5th and 6th floors of the agency's headquarters for the incoming Secretary's perusal. Purisima and Dominguez both had their teams working closely for a whole month coordinating an orderly transition for the latter to hit the ground running on day one. As Finance Secretary, he is a member of the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Governor for the Philippines in the
Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Governor for the Philippines at the
World Bank, and Alternate Governor for the Philippines at the
International Monetary Fund. He is also ex-officio Chairman of the
Land Bank of the Philippines, the
Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC), the
Philippine Export-Import Credit Agency, the
National Power Corporation (NAPOCOR/NPC), the Home Guaranty Corporation, the
National Transmission Corporation (TransCo), and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM).
Chairmanships in international fora and role in business sectors In 2011–2012, Purisima served as Chairman of the
Asian Development Bank (ADB) Board of Governors, chairing the 45th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors in May 2012, where the Philippines showed off its hosting chops to the international community, earning the ADB's praise. Purisima was also instrumental in the Philippine hosting of the 23rd
World Economic Forum (WEF) on East Asia in 2014. In 2015, while the Philippines hosted the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings, he served as the Chair of the APEC Finance Ministers’ Process (FMP) and shepherded the adoption of the Cebu Action Plan (CAP), the first ever roadmap under the FMP. As of 2016, the Peru Chairmanship of the APEC Finance Ministers’ Process (FMP) is focusing on implementing the Cebu Action Plan. In its first statement, the group called the response to
climate change a "foremost humanitarian priority," with the V20 committing to act collectively to "foster a significant increase" of public and private finance for climate action from wide-ranging sources, including international, regional and domestic mobilization. In the inaugural meeting Purisima chaired, all 20 members agreed to establish a sovereign V20 Climate Risk Pooling mechanism to distribute economic and financial risks, enabling participating economies to improve recovery from climate-induced extreme weather events and disasters and to ensure enhanced security for jobs, livelihoods, businesses and investors. Modeled on similar regional facilities, the trans-regional mechanism would increase access to dependable and cost-efficient insurance while incentivizing scaled-up adaptation. V20 member countries also committed to develop or improve their financial accounting models and methodologies to enhance accounting of climate change costs, risks and response co-benefits in all their forms, while seeking a new international partnership to help realize the group's aims. Purisma is also one of the advisors of
ABS-CBN Corporation. ==Personal life==