But that didn’t eventuate for the General Managing Director of Coca-Cola Amatil who now manages 12,000 workers across six countries.

While studying at the University of Tasmania, Alison met her husband Rod.

“He wasn’t really on script for my ideal man. I loved farms and farming, and always imagined myself living happily ever after on a farm in Tasmania,” she says.

“He was a red head, so not the tall, dark handsome farmer I’d imagined for a start.”

Far from being in the rural sector, Rod’s family were all doctors. “His family wanted him to go to the ‘mainland’, as us Tasmanians call it,” Alison says.

“He ended up doing an MBA and they encouraged him to stretch himself well beyond Tasmania in a way that I didn’t really think was necessary but ended up going along with.”

It opened Alison’s eyes to a corporate world which has seen her in roles such as chief executive of agribusiness GrainCorp Limited and of Berri Limited, the market leader in Australian juice, as well as Managing Director of Regional Banking at ANZ.

Their four children have also taken unexpected career paths with the eldest two founding Click Management, one of the largest gaming and entertainment companies in the Southern Hemisphere.

This was off the back of son Elliott Watkins, 26, dropping out of uni and establishing a career as a gamer and influencer.

His 9.5m YouTube subscribers bring in estimated revenue of about $7500 per day.

Alison, whose maiden name was Lester, was born and grew up in the Midlands on a farm at York Plains, near Oatlands, before moving to a farm at Runnymede on the East Coast.

The self-confessed tomboy embraced all aspects of agricultural life.

“My father taught me how to ride a motorbike from an early age. I would get involved moving sheep, driving the tractor, working in the shearing shed,” Alison says.

“He encouraged me to get involved and I really loved that way of life.

“Dad always loved boats and would take us out fishing. He was a keen golfer and I learnt. I used to caddie for him at Orford Golf Club.

“He gave up farming when I was about 15 and bought a cray fishing boat and we moved to Triabunna.”

Alison has fond childhood memories of spending time in Tasmania’s unique and unspoilt wilderness.

“We used to go camping at Schouten Island every year for two weeks with three or four other families, which I loved,” Alison says.

“Looking back it was special and idyllic. Of course we didn’t appreciate how special it was but now it’s great to see more people appreciating that area.

“There’s also better concern for the environment and protection in place.”

From Grade 6 she attended boarding school at St Michael’s Collegiate all-girls school.

“I loved boarding school,” she says.

“I enjoyed the independence. I very much threw myself into it and the activities like debating.

“I had teachers who went out of their way to support me and inspire me, and gave me leadership opportunities at the school that helped me develop.”

She then undertook a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Tasmania and lived on campus.

“Uni was a lot of fun. I moved into Christ College, which back then was three quarters male,” she says.

“I loved the camaraderie, I made good friends.

“University during the 80s and being on campus, being intricately involved in uni life, college life and being part of a tight community, was fun.”

Upon graduating Rod and Alison moved to Sydney to start what would become high flying careers.

“I was offered a couple of roles in Tasmania but I ended up joining a chartered accounting firm in Sydney,” she says. “I was surprised they even hired a Tasmanian.”

After four years she moved to management consulting firm McKinsey & Company where she spent 10 years and became a partner in the firm.

“This [her role at McKinsey & Company] opened my eyes to possible roles in the corporate sector, and particularly leadership roles, and the breadth and appeal those could have,” she says.

“The upbringing I’d had, I hadn’t really had exposure to that world at all so it was fantastic to be working with CEOs and boards, and working on problems of strategy, or change management or reorganisation.

“All sorts of interesting challenging problems and working with people who are inspiring and great coaches.

“It’s an environment where you can develop quickly from humble beginnings.

“Working with the right people it can change you in quite profound ways.

“From there I wanted get into the corporate world and be the decision maker and the one accountable for making things happen, having the opportunity to work with people and create an environment that would bring out the best in people.

“I went to ANZ for three years and thanks to the CEO I got to run a business, that was an important step forward.

“I was running Regional Banking, which was the retail and small business customers’ arm, in regional Australia and New Zealand. So that was a great fit with my background.

“I was leading a large team, responsible for the bank’s P & L [profit and loss].”

Her next step up the corporate ladder to chief executive of Berri Limited gave her complete control of all aspects of the business.

“At one end you had the sourcing of oranges from citrus growers, right through to brands like Just Juice and Daily Juice, through to selling and dealing with Coles and Woolworths, distribution and logistics.

“It was great experience and set me up to be able to take on roles I subsequently took, particularly GrainCorp, which is a listed agribusiness where I was CEO for four years and, most recently, Coca-Cola Amatil where I’ve been CEO for seven years.”

In March 2014, Alison became the Group Managing Director of Coca-Cola Amatil, which includes a portfolio of 160 brands of water, kombucha, sports and energy drinks, fruit juice, iced tea, flavoured milk, coffee, tea, beer, cider and spirits, which the company locally produces, packages, sells and distributes.

“We have amazing brands – obviously Coca-Cola, Mount Franklin – also alcohol brands like Jim Beam and Canadian Club,” she says.

“In addition to Australia and New Zealand we have fantastic markets like Indonesia, PNG, Fiji and so forth. It’s a dynamic business.

“When I first came along it felt like we were under siege somewhat. Particularly in Australia, there was a lot of concern and negative momentum around sugar and the challenges that was presenting for the Coke brand at the time was immense.

“Changes over the last seven years have centred around our focus on sustainability and

commitment to sugar reduction.

“Being part of the solution on plastic as well as renewables, carbon emissions reduction, these are the areas we’ve changed most.

“We recognise we need to create value for shareholders and certainly that’s a priority but we need and want to do it in a way that’s creating value for society.

“We’ve recognised that as a leading beverage business we have a tremendous opportunity to make a difference in those areas – in sugar, in plastic.

“We need to own those problems and we need to be at the forefront of solving them.

“We’ve gone from seeing that as problems that we need to defend ourselves against to being something we can embrace with passion and enthusiasm.”

Being a woman in the top job in an Australia company, Alison is bucking the trend.

There are just 10 female CEOs in the ASX 200, making up five per cent of CEOs.

She puts her success down to a number of factors but juggling a career and family has always been a balancing act.

“Having great support at home is important,” she says.

“There’s no doubt about it the CEO role is an all-consuming role. If you want to have a family something has to give.

“I’m very lucky that Rod, my husband, has taken a leading role in supporting the family and making sure that our kids were well looked after,” Alison says, “which meant I was able to focus on the jobs I’ve had, and putting in an intense and unpredictable level of effort.”

Rod resigned from a successful investment banking job at former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s firm Turnbull & Partners to stay at home with the children.

“The other thing that’s made a difference is that I’ve connected with people along the way that were looking for a style of leadership that was a good fit with me, and they’ve taken a risk on me and created opportunities for me, and that’s created a dynamic where I don’t want to let anyone down and it’s very motivating when you know someone has taken a risk.

“Boards can be conservative about their choices but when they recognise a need for a type of leadership they take a risk,” she says.

“I’ve come along at the right time for the opportunities I’ve been able to grab. You feel grateful for those opportunities and you want to vindicate the decision.”

Alison is currently on the boards of The Centre for Independent Studies, the Business Council of Australia and the Reserve Bank of Australia. Her previous board positions include ANZ, Woolworths and Just Group.

She said a culture shift was required to reach equality. “We need our society to continue to shift so that it is the norm to have more flexible family models and there’s practical things around that like child care,” she says.

“Women’s own views of themselves and their belief and confidence in themselves needs to shift as well.

“There are things that need to change to create a society that is more supportive of female leaders and more accepting of female leaders. It has been changing quite a lot over my career but there’s still a way to go.

“I think our large organisations, our boards, need to be broader in the way they think about people who are capable of taking on leadership roles.

“And in the way they develop female talent.

“I think organisations are thinking more broadly about how they create value for society, whether it’s through being better stewards of the environment or a greater focus on their communities or their own people as well as their customers.

“I think a more inclusive and diverse style of leadership will be required to be successful for a lot of organisations. And I see a lot of change on boards happening in line with that as well.”

Alison said while it was unexpected she was proud of the unconventional career paths her children had forged.

“There’s not a lot of career advice that I’ve provided that’s been much help,” she says.

“It’s fantastic to see how they’ve been entrepreneurial and followed careers that neither Rod nor I would have considered.”

She said Elliott, who last year spent $9.1 million on beachfront property in Sydney’s east, had shown a flare for tech from an early age.

“When he was a kid he’d spend too much time on his Xbox, like a lot of kids, and we’d get very frustrated,” she says.

“I can remember Rod shutting off the internet, confiscating the Xbox – there were all sorts of strategies, none of which were particularly successful – to try and stop him spending so much time online.

“We thought he’d got over that stage.

“By the time he finished school he started commerce/law at ANU [Australian National University] and we breathed a sigh of relief thinking ‘Phew, he’ll make a nice lawyer one day’.”

Then after a couple of years at uni he said: ‘Mum and dad I’d like to take a gap year and concentrate on my YouTube channel’.

“We said, ‘What YouTube channel?’ Anyway he came to live with me in Sydney that year and I got to see how hard he worked and got to understand a lot of what he’s doing.

“He’s a personality, an influencer and he’s good at it. Elliott always had the gift of the gab.

“He works hard, creates a lot of content, has a huge subscriber base who like his sense of humour and personality. He’s gone from strength to strength.”

Elliott streams himself playing games like Fortnite under the name Muselk and his videos are viewed one million times a day. He also posts vlogs and tutorials.

“What’s also been exciting to watch is Elliott and Grace, his older sister [a former associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers], set up a business called Click Management.

“They recognised the opportunity to provide professional management for other social media influencers like Elliott, many of whom are quite young.

“Increasingly there are brands who want to do deals with these influencers because they have a huge reach and connection with their audiences.

“So they’ve set up a business looking after leading social media influencers, most of whom are Australian based as we’re punching above our weight in this area.

“They’re really in the flow of what’s happening in gaming and entertainment, and what’s really a cultural revolution as much as it’s about how kids are spending their time these days.”

Elliott is now Click Mangement’s Director and Grace is the company’s CEO.

“Their younger sister Ilsa is working with Click [as Office Coordinator] and is an influencer herself,” Alison says.

“Meg, the youngest, is at ANU and has started second year uni, so we might get a degree out of her. She’s also been studying Mandarin, which is a difficult language.”

Alison said CCA’s commitment to environmental sustainability was ongoing.

“Being involved in the container deposit schemes being set up around the country, including currently being set up in Tasmania, has been an important part of the last few years,” she says. “Going back 10 years or so ago the focus was on litter reduction so bottles and cans don’t end up in litter streams.

“And to some degree these schemes play some role in that. Where I think these schemes have really come into their own is in achieving much better recycling outcomes.

“We, as a company, have set ourselves the goal of what we call ‘closing the loop by 2030’.

“So, for every bottle or can we produce we want to make sure one is collected and recycled.

“We don’t want to have single-use bottles and cans that then are rubbish or end up in landfill or even end up as a park bench.

“We want that bottle or can to get collected and turned into another bottle or can again, and again, and again.

“That’s our goal.

“The container deposit schemes provide a good impetus for this to happen as the consumer knows there’s a 10 cent deposit that they can get back or can go to benefit a cause they’re passionate about.

“I think where they work best is if the producer, like us, takes responsibility for those resources and plays an integral role in closing that loop, so as not to make it somebody else’s problem.

“They work best when there’s involvement, but not control, from the beverage industry; ourselves and Lion Nathan being the big ones.

“We want to see positive community outcomes as they’re achieving benefits for community organisations like Scouts or local footy clubs, or creating jobs for disadvantaged groups in the community.

“It’s about creating a whole new industry.

“And if you approach it that way and say, ‘How can this industry be a positive for our community, rather than it just cleaning up bottles and cans?’ then everyone benefits.

“We’re not going first in Tasmania so we have the chance to learn from states like Queensland and Western Australia.”

Following the devastating bushfires in late 2019/early 2020 Coca-Cola Amatil donated 250,000 bottles of water and Powerade to emergency crews and families in disaster recovery centres and evacuation zones.

Limited edition cans brandished with the slogan “Share a Coke with the Fireys” were donated exclusively to firefighters, volunteer fire organisations and fire-affected communities.

Alison and her family were back in Tasmania recently for Rod’s father’s 89th birthday at The Point revolving restaurant.

“I still have lots of family in Tasmania,” she says.

“Mine and Rod’s parents are still in Hobart so we get down pretty regularly.

“Certainly I would be planning to spend more time in Tassie over coming years. I always thought it was the best place to live and I probably do still think that.”