Founder and Managing Director of Athena Collections, Andy was born and raised in Sydney, Australia, then moved and spent his teenage years in Greece before settling in England in 2000. During his time at school in Greece Andy was subjected to bullying which, coupled with another significant life experience later unlocked from the subconscious, influenced his later decisions and now underpin the ethos and values of Athena Collections. Andy strives to be an “ethical debt collection agency” admitting that the perception of the industry is tainted, but he defines his success based on his company values being delivered to every client, evidence by feedback and reputation.
Andy was born and raised in Sydney, Australia, then moved and spent his teenage years in Greece before settling in England in 2000.
When Andy moved from Australia to Greece, he spoke Greek with a broken accent, consequently Andy was bullied in school which presented some personal barriers and created a strong emotional resonance with never wanting to see someone limited or disadvantaged because of another actions.
Prior to finding his calling in debt collection, Andy was spending his summers in Greece and winters in England working pub jobs. When he and his family settled in England, he started looking for what he considered to be a “proper job”, an office job, and came across a debt collection role in the paper. Without fully understanding what the role was, he applied, was subsequently offered, and continued to evolve in for several years.
Some years later Andy was working on some self-development and begun to explore why he resonated with his role in debt collection. It became apparent there was a particular personal event as a child that generated strong emotion around making “the wrong right” and found his purpose in returning funds rightfully owed to a person/business and felt the calling to be a ”protector and guardian” to his clients.
When Andy was in full time employment, it had to be done their way, while with setting up Athena, he could imbed his ethos and values into the company operations and that has been fundamental to growing the business.
Andy set up Athena Collections six years ago, having recently celebrated their sixth birthday, and it all started from Andy’s dining room table with a passion for doing the right thing, Athena continually strives to be an “Ethical Debt Collection Agency”, doing the right thing by their client every time.
Andy explains that the perception of the industry is tainted, but his definition of success centres around the customer experience – trustworthy, honest, transparent, secondary is the team and everything else comes after. Andy explains he would much rather be an ethical debt collection agency, rather than a wealthy one.
Andy explains what he calls “snowball growth” and how this influences reduced sales target through their six year KPIs targets for 50% of Athena’s business to be return customers, evidence by a 60% growth in 2023 compared to the same period last year, which he attributes to their strong values.