Amazing passion for education
Wyndham appoints Collinson
PROPERTY law specialist Liz Collinson has been appointed Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific’s top legal eagle.
Ms Collinson will take on the role of senior vice-president legal and compliance, based at the Gold Coast corporate office.
She will oversee Wyndham’s legal and compliance team on the Gold Coast and Singapore.
Ms Collinson joins the hospitality heavyweight after three years running her own law firm.
She has experience in a wide range of aspects of international hospitality law.
They include multi-jurisdictional hotel and resort development, regulatory compliance, investment, capital expenditure and business development.
Previous roles include 10 years as senior vice-president legal and general counsel at Intercontinental Hotels Group Asia Pacific in Singapore.
Ms Collinson said she is excited about joining Wyndham.
“I am looking forward to joining a global company that is on the move in South-East Asia and the Pacific,” she said.
“This will be a fantastic opportunity for me to work alongside Wyndham’s talented team in growing the business, while also experiencing all that life on the Gold Coast has to offer.” AMAZE Early Education is forging its own business model in the fiercely competitive childcare sector – one that takes a detour off the beaten path and into the bush.
The Robina-based company was launched in February, 2008, by sisters Lucy Cook and Alison Mazey together with Alison’s husband Phil Mazey and father-in-law Bruce Mazey.
By February, when the business marks its 10-year anniversary, it will have grown from one centre to four with venues in Ormeau due to open next month and Gaven in January.
The business grew out of the sisters’ background in education.
Lucy finished her teaching career as head of boarding at St Saviour’s College in Toowoomba while Alison’s last role was as assistant head of boarding at St Hilda’s in Southport.
“We became good at marketing schools for other people and creating a good environment for the children so we decided that we could do it for ourselves,” Lucy said.
She said the intention was to help Alison launch the business and study medicine.
“I was booked in to do my Graduate Medical School Admissions Test, but I fell in love with what I was doing and it reignited my passion for education,” Lucy said.
The sisters spent eight months looking for their first venue before settling on a Hinterland Drive site backing onto Campbell Duncan Park in Mudgeeraba.
“We wanted a place with real trees and grass, which was quite uncommon then,” she said.
In 2011, Amaze launched a separate arm of the business to cater to the demand for afterschool care services.
“We had a big after-school care program at the kindy, but I was passionate about how big children needed their own space to run off steam after school,” Lucy said.
An after-school care program was opened at C3 Church in Mudgeeraba and another at Mudgeeraba State School in 2011.
Four years later the business opened its second early education centre in Silkstone, Ipswich.
She said as the business has grown, it has placed more importance on outdoor education, a key reason why the sites at Gaven and Ormeau were chosen.
“I’m passionate about the outdoors. It is not just a place to let off steam – it is an outdoor classroom where children can grow and develop. In Ormeau half of the block is taken up by the centre and the other half is bushland. Kids go out into the bush and learn in nature. They problem solve and we have taken on a lot of that philosophy,” she said.
Lucy said Amaze will achieve one of its key goals when it opens its first owned and operated centre in Gaven.
“We want to be the best quality child care provider in southeast Queensland – not the biggest,” she said.