How Foley-Quin's waiting game paid off

SHE hand-picked the waiters and waitresses at the wedding dinner of actress Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban.

SHE hand-picked the waiters and waitresses at the wedding dinner of actress Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban.

And she supervised dozens of young people who served Princess Mary and Prince Frederik of Denmark at their glitzy charity dinner at Boomerang, in Sydney's Elizabeth Bay.

Mandy Foley-Quin is no ordinary head waitress.

She is the woman behind hundreds of faceless waitresses, bar attendants, cocktail waiters and doormen at Stedmans Hospitality, a one-stop supplier of staff for private parties, charity functions and boardroom meals.

Yesterday, she won the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman award, which is presented in 17 countries worldwide in recognition of exceptional women in business.

Foley-Quin began Stedmans from scratch 23 years ago when she was a single mother with a six-month-old daughter to feed. The company has now grown to become one of Sydney's major suppliers of trained hospitality staff to major events including the Sydney, Athens and Beijing Olympic Games.

When she first arrived in Sydney from New Zealand with $600 and a suitcase in 1983, she quickly found herself working the worst shifts in hospitality.

Three years later, she and two partners decided to pool their expertise to form Stedmans, which took over the responsibility of looking after superannuation, payroll tax and workers compensation for casual hospitality workers.

Back then, the company turned over a humble $50,000 a year. Today, she has a young army of 1500 casual workers on her books and turns over $5.5 million for a $500,000 profit last year.

She is also a tireless supporter of various charities, in particular the Sydney Children's Hospital.

Her young staff give a day of their working time to charity each year while she donates several weeks of her own time organising charitable functions.

"I'm passionate about giving something back to society -- it's a bit like restocking the cupboard. So I do give a lot of my time, services and cash to help organise events to raise money for charity.

"I'm not afraid to ask anything for charity, but I would be most embarrassed to ask something for myself," the self-made millionairess says.

Stedmans also runs hospitality courses and has added two divisions -- Q Casting, which provides film extras, and Smith & Jones, a talent management agency that supplies stars for shows such as Home and Away and All Saints.

The business award began in France in 1972 to commemorate Madame Clicquot who was widowed at the age of 27 and took over the reins of her husband's champagne business.