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

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

Duffy has been a leading force in the venue industry for over 30 years at some of Sydney’s iconic sports and entertainment facilities. He 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 passing of the Academy’s foundation leader, Simon Weatherill, earlier this year.

Tom Mills, Anthony Duffy, Ravi Khadka (Sydney Opera House Contract Manager), Bikash Pathak (Sydney Opera House Contract Administrator)

Quayclean Chief Executive, Mark Piwkowski, welcomed Duffy in his leadership consulting capacity saying his vast industry experience and knowledge will prove invaluable to the company’s emerging leaders.

“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),” said Piwkowski.

“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,” he added.

Piwkowski said over 70 team members have progressed through the Quay Academy with many promoted to management roles.

“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,” said Piwkowski.

Ravi, Anthony, Tom & Bikash

Duffy said he was excited to be assisting with the Quay Academy.

“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,” said Duffy.

“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.

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