Anthony Duffy to lead Quay Academy

Respected venues industry leader, Anthony Duffy, has been appointed to head the Quay Academy - Quayclean Australia’s on-site staff leadership, training and mentoring program.

The Quay Academy was established eight years ago to establish deep cultural behaviors within Quayclean’s 5,000-strong directly employed workforce and develop leaders throughout the nationwide cleaning, resource recovery and hygiene services company.

Duffy, whose 30 year venue industry career spans some of Sydney’s leading sports and entertainment facilities, was previously the owner and Managing Director of VIPeople, a division of Venue Industry Professionals Pty Ltd, and is currently Managing Director of Thinking Outside.

Duffy will manage the Quay Academy following the sudden death of the Academy’s foundation leader, Simon Weatherill, earlier this year.

Welcoming Duffy in his leadership consulting capacity and noting that his vast industry experience and knowledge will prove invaluable to the company’s emerging leaders, Quayclean Chief Executive, Mark Piwkowski stated “apart from having worked at several of Australia’s iconic sports and entertainment facilities, Anthony has an impressive record as an educator having served as a lecturer at the University of Technology in Sydney, a long-serving instructor at the Venue Management School (VMS) and is currently Dean at the Leadership Institute (LI).

“Simon Weatherill left a fantastic legacy with his pioneering work with the Quay Academy, and we are fortunate to have Anthony on board to help develop our next generation of leaders.”

Explaining that over 70 team members have progressed through the Quay Academy with many promoted to management roles, Piwkowski noted “the Quay Academy focuses on developing credible authentic leaders who espouse our core values of trust, teamwork, respect, growth, and passion. We want these leaders to have the knowledge and skill to effectively lead their teams and create outstanding experiences for customers.”

Excited to be assisting with the Quay Academy, Duffy commented “the Quay Academy is a wonderful model which many other companies should adopt. The priority is to identify talent, train and equip them with the skills to become senior leaders.

“Throughout my career, I have worked closely with front-line staff and I will be adopting an operational approach with the Quay Academy as we guide and mentor them through a variety of real-life scenarios.”

The next cohort of emerging Quayclean workers will conduct leadership workshops under Duffy’s tutelage in Sydney and Melbourne next month and again in November.

Images: Anthony Duffy (top) and pictured (second from left) with Quayclean team members at the Sydney Opera House.