Amway Queensland headquarters hosts Doug DeVos
- Details
- Published on Friday, 23 January 2009 21:25
- Written by Amway Watch
AMWAY president Doug DeVos visited the company’s Queensland headquarters at Loganholme on Sunday for the first time since the $2million centre opened in November.
Mr DeVos, son of company co-founder Rich DeVos, flew in from the US to inspect the site, which was chosen for its proximity to Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
He said the company was investing in its business facilities here because it saw great potential.
“We are financially strong, we are in consumer products that only seem to be modestly impacted at this point by the financial crisis,” he said
“As we look to the future we are still a business planning to grow.”
Mr DeVos said hard work and optimism led to success.
“My father grew up in the Depression in the United States,” he said.
“They were very poor, but they always had confidence in the future that the future would be better, and if they would just be optimistic and do the things necessary to find their way, that they’d have the opportunity to be successful.
“My grandfather would always tell him, `Don’t ever say you can’t do anything you can do it’; people who have been successful have worked hard.”
And work hard he does.
Last week Mr DeVos attended the company’s global management conference in Los Angeles, before travelling to Bangkok and then to the Brisbane facility.
He also visited Sydney and Auckland before flying home on Wednesday.
He said the time away from home and his family was “always a balance”.
“That’s what I have to negotiate with my wife all the time,” he said.
“Because it’s a family business there are things they (family) can participate with they understand it; they feel close to it.
“My parents were gone a lot, but I knew where they were, what they were doing.
“I always felt loved, I never felt like I was last, like the business was more important than me.
“Hopefully I communicate the same thing to my family.”
