What is your favorite travel memory?
As President of the College and its ABCi outreach to Austrian pupils, most of my time in the first two years of the organization's history was spent in an old Volkswagen with Academic Director Ben Stone. It is safe to say that I have seen more of Austria than most Austrians.
But my favorite memory has to be Mr. Stone, describing to me (in detail) the quality of Austrian soil and rocks as we drove through the countryside promoting our initiative. As an Australian from the outback, he was really quite taken with Austrian dirt.
How have you changed/grown since working for your current company?
One thing we're quite proud of around here is that we are an organization founded by teachers, run by teachers, employing teachers. That means no MBAs trying to squeeze margins out of children, teachers or other stakeholders.
That also means that we've had to learn how to manage a quickly expanding organization with little to no business training. In practice for me personally, that means learning the hard way.
This experience has given me invaluable insights into human nature as well as making me more self-aware of how my actions are perceived by others.
I have learned how to manage and motivate staff - I continue to learn a bit more every day.
What is the best story you've heard from a return student?
Easy. Polly Esther Cotton (I'm not kidding, that was her real name, she won a contest in Australia for best name one year) One of our first participants on the old volunteer program, she wrote back years later to say that her time with us had made her decide to go to University and study to become a public school teacher - she made it quite clear that these few months had changed her life. That's a good feeling.
What makes your company unique? When were you especially proud of your team?
I guess the best thing that our company offers is not being a for-profit company, but instead a non-profit organization. We don't need to make a profit or pay shareholders or investors - all of our resources (memberships, donations, sponsorship) are poured back into the teacher training program for the benefit of staff, student teacher, and pupil alike.
I have seen a lot of different teaching in many different countries (public and private). We have on staff at the moment 4-5 of the best teachers that I have ever worked with in my life. It is hard to spend a couple months with these people and not become an effective teacher.
What do you believe to be the biggest factor in being a successful company?
That we're not a company :-)