Gina Ilarde

Gina Ilarde had built a career to be proud of. Starting as an engineer at the Schindler Group, she climbed steadily — and impressively — to become its HR Director. For a Filipino woman building a life in Singapore, it represented not just professional success but genuine achievement against real odds.

Then her two young sons were diagnosed with autism.

No career milestone, no salary package, no title prepares you for that moment. Gina made the decision that many parents in her position face but fewer act on: she walked away from the high-paying job. Her sons needed her present, not promoted.

But Gina was not built for idle domesticity. She needed to build something — and she needed it to work on her terms, around her boys. So she looked back to the Philippines and launched two traditional businesses: a spa and a laundry operation. The logic was sound. The execution, as she would later reflect, was a painful education.

Managing operations, staff, customer service and daily crises remotely — from Singapore, while raising two sons with autism — proved far harder than any business plan anticipated. Both businesses failed. The losses were real. The lessons were priceless.

When a church friend introduced Gina to avita, something was different. Not because she was desperate — though the failures had stung — but because she was now educated. She had paid the school fees that most aspiring entrepreneurs skip. She had learned, in the hardest possible way, exactly what traditional business demands and what it costs when it fails.

Now she could evaluate avita's model with the clear eyes of someone who had tried the alternative. The contrast was stark. No premises. No daily operational crises. No staff to manage across time zones. No remote customer service headaches. Instead: low capital, low risk, and a wellness market with genuinely limitless potential in both Singapore and the Philippines.

She didn't hesitate. She started immediately as a Direct GA and began building — first in Singapore, then expanding back into the Philippines where her roots, her relationships, and her market instinct ran deep.

As Gina's network of leaders grew increasingly independent, something remarkable happened: she got her time back. Not as a reward for working less — but as the natural result of building correctly, mentoring effectively, and trusting a system designed to work even when she wasn't in the room.

That time goes where it has always mattered most. Her sons. The care they need, the presence they deserve, the advocacy they require from a mother who chose them over every professional alternative.

But Gina thinks further than today. The avita business is a willable asset — meaning it can be passed down. Her vision is not just to earn from this business but to leave it to her sons. In an industry where succession planning is rare, she is building something that will outlast her active years and continue providing for the two people who gave her the most important reason to succeed.

"The business failures were valuable school fees. They gave me the wisdom to recognise a real opportunity when I finally saw one — and the clarity to build it right."

There is no more powerful motivation in business than love. Gina Ilarde has proven it — one distributor, one leader, one country at a time.

Gina's story is for every parent who has ever felt the impossible tension between being present for their children and building something that will provide for them long-term. For every entrepreneur who has tried the traditional route and paid the school fees. For every person who needs a business that works around life — not the other way around.

She built hers with the clearest possible purpose. What would yours be?