Starting a long and checkered career in the life insurance business two decades ago while still in college, Jo-An today leads a team of over 300 dedicated financial advisors. This is a far cry from the motely crew of only 5 agents when she became an agency leader back in 2012. This was the same time when Jo-An decided to dedicate more time into building a family — dropping corporate work altogether so she can balance family life while doing the business of life insurance full time. An avowed fan of writer and top industry practitioner Joseph “Joe” Jordan, Jo-An has taken to heart the author’s exhortation to live a life of significance. This is clearly manifested in Jo-An’s life-long undertakings, whose recurring theme may be summed up in one word: “excellence”. She earned her B. A. Economics-Honors and B.S. in Management Engineering, Cum Laude, from the Ateneo de Manila University. She was valedictorian of both her grade school and high school classes at Jubilee Christian Academy. A serial entrepreneur by heart, Jo-An would try her hand at different business ideas after college while building a career in the IT and telecommunications sector. She was one of the first certified Project Management Professionals (PMP) in the industry. Moving full time into the life insurance business, Jo-An would reap rewards left and right, gaining the highest company and industry recognitions to be had. She is an eight-tine Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) qualifier, a five-time Court of the Table (COT) qualifier, and a one-time Top of the Table (TOT) qualifier, the highest individual accolade in the financial services industry worldwide. At Pru Life UK, she has been a constant on the annual awards stage, bagging the President’s Club recognition four times as one of the company’s top Unit Managers. She is a Master Star Club Awardee for her nine-time Star Club qualification. She was one of the company’s Top 10 Financial Consultants of the Year for three years. Her latest achievement is being a 13-Star Life Club Pro Qualifier — highest, company-wide — to Prudential PLC’s Life Club, which recognizes agents who provide the most significant protection for their clients and consistently secures a life month in month out. Jo-An is a Front Line Awardee of the General Agents and Managers Association of the Philippines (GAMA) from 2013 to 2017 and a GAMA International Management Awardee in 2018 and 2019. Establishing Spark Amber Life Insurance Agency in February 2018 as its President and Branch Manager, Jo-An continued her winning streak bagging the “Million Dollar Agency” award on her first two years. She is poised to repeat the feat this year, pandemic notwithstanding. As she expands the Spark Amber agency in terms of manpower and production, Jo-An continues to give back to the industry that she has been a part of for 20 years, serving in GAMA as Public Relations Officer in 2019, and as its Corporate Secretary this year. Because of her insatiable thirst for knowledge and self-improvement, Jo-An has tucked under her belt an equally impressive line-up of training and certifications. She is a Certified Financial Consultant (CFC), a Fellow Chartered Financial Practitioner (FChFP), and a Certified Agency Manager (CAM), the latter obtained as the top student in her training class. A sought-after speaker, Jo-An has shared her expertise and experience onstage in other branches of Pru Life, in other life insurance companies, and in industry gatherings. Overseas, she has also been invited to tell her story to an international audience on a couple of occasions. As a reward for her numerous achievements in the business, Jo-An has travelled to over 50 local and international destinations, oftentimes sharing unforgettable experiences with her family: her equally prolific achiever husband, Willison, and precocious kids, Warren and Liam. Looking into the future, Jo-An aims to build a bigger team of trusted advocates, among them 100 gold-level industry managers who will, by their hard work and commitment, liberate Filipinos from economic disadvantage and want. By doing so, Spark Amber agents will amply demonstrate what it means to work with purpose and to live a life of significance.