Alison Quinn, Chief Executive Officer – RetireAustralia and Chair of St Margaret’s School Council, spoke at the third sold-out Professional Women’s Network Breakfast for 2018 in August.
Reflecting on her career journey to date, Alison was a humorous raconteur, sharing poignant insights and recurring themes from what has essentially been, for Alison, a winding road through life.
As one of Australia’s most experienced property executives, Alison has previously held positions as Executive General Manager, Retirement at Aveo Group, CEO Growth Management for Queensland Government and Executive General Manager, Sanctuary Cove.
She has extensive development and investment experience in the seniors housing, property and construction sectors. Additionally, Alison has held Chair and Board memberships across multiple public sector growth projects and is currently the President of the Retirement Living Council.
Alison shared with guests three things she learnt early on in her career working in the family property development business, which have resonated with her for the rest of her working life.
The first was appreciating the importance of the customer. “Having the customer at the centre of my thinking is something I still rely upon today,” said Alison.
The second was gaining an understanding of the big picture. For Alison, this meant opportunities to learn and understand every single aspect of property development, rather than a single facet. She says she encourages younger property developers to gather a broad understanding of how the whole business operates, a principle which can be applied to almost any industry and almost any role.
Lastly, Alison learnt that becoming involved in outside organisations gave her unique opportunities to broaden her knowledge and expand her networks.
“These participations provided me with a unique layer of knowledge and experience that I am very fortunate to have. There’s no way I could have gained that knowledge and experience by just doing a job. I was becoming involved in areas far removed from my comfort zone. What I was actually doing was developing my EQ more than my IQ,” Alison said.
During the breakfast, Alison also emphasised the value of having a network saying: “A network is vastly different from having friends that you work with. A network is something that you can work on, that you gain benefit from, that you can teach and you can learn from at the same time.
“Through my life I have collected people. I haven’t done that with any intention other than I enjoy it. They have made me smarter, they’ve made me wiser. Maybe I’ve assisted them, they’ve definitely assisted me. I have learnt from them to be more experienced, to be a bit more fun and to get more intuition from any book. Learning doesn’t stop. That lifelong learning to me has always been important.”
Alison also shared with the room full of more than 150 women and men a valuable lesson in acceptance she learnt from her husband: “No one in this life is ever wrong. It’s just that my perspective is different and it’s up to me to try to understand what their perspective is. It doesn’t mean I have to accept it, but I need to acknowledge it and I need to know where they are coming from,” said Alison.
In Alison’s closing remarks she left her listeners with a powerful thought about life’s winding road: “My life has definitely not been linear. I don’t think anyone’s is. I don’t think it can be perfectly planned and wouldn’t it be boring if it was. So, I’d say, enjoy that winding path and even try and enjoy the few dead ends along the way.”
St Margaret’s appreciates the support of our generous Professional Women’s Network sponsors including major partner Torrens University Australia/Laureate Universities; associate sponsors Pitcher Partners and McCullough Robertson; special table sponsor, Programmed Property Services and supporting partner, Queensland Brain Institute.
For a gallery of images from the event, visit the St Margaret’s Facebook page.
The final Professional Women’s Network event for 2018 will be held on Thursday 18 October with Dr Lavinia Codd – Advancement Manager, Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland. To give more city-based professionals the opportunity to enjoy these valuable networking events, this cocktail style event will be held at Price Waterhouse Coopers from 5:30pm to 7:30pm. Click here for further information and to purchase tickets.