SANDALS UNVEILS ITS DIAMOND EMPLOYEE

SANDALS Emerald Bay has selected its accounts payable head as its Diamond of the Year from more than 500 staff at the Exuma property.

Brenette Nixon knows what few others in the industry know – exactly what it costs to run a hotel.

She pays the bills. But beyond her job title, her story is one of those Cinderella-like tales that would not be possible, she says, if Sandals were not so committed to promoting those who show promise regardless of where they start.

Having started as an entry level general cashier, she is now head of accounts payable, the division responsible for ensuring accuracy and on-time payment of all bills and expenses at the sprawling 480-acre Sandals Emerald Bay resort. That includes hotel accommodations, villas, restaurants, bars, marina, golf course and other areas, even including photography.

Ms Nixon was raised along with three siblings by her mother after her father died when she was eight, too poor to dream of going to college. But she is accustomed to learning as she goes regardless of struggle, overcoming and making her way to the finish line just as she did in track despite having to run barefoot.

“A lot of us at LN Coakley (High School) were like that,” says the Exuma native. The 100 metres was her best event. She would often come first or second, running her heart out barefoot on the hard soil that served as a track. A former track star named Ricky Moxey, later in life a coach and teacher at a government school, bought her and others at the school their first pair of running shoes.

“I was in my last year of school,” she said. Years later, when Ms Nixon was a leader in the Sandals Foundation Angels, the first thing she did was make sure the Foundation provided funds for track and field athletes at the same school she attended - a school the resort now regularly supports. The Foundation also purchased playground equipment for Rokers

Point Primary along with the other deeds and gifts team members carry out throughout the year. Ms Nixon also serves on EHS Guardian, the in-house group dedicated to the environment, health and safety. And she is Sandals

Emerald Bay Resort’s Big Dream Ambassador.

But the title that shocked her the most was one that placed her as the top employee of the entire resort - a title bestowed on her last year at the annual gala event and an honour she still holds.

“When I was announced the winner, I was so shocked, I could not get up. My daughter said: ‘Mom, they called your name. You won, you gotta go up there’.

I couldn’t move. And then it all came rushing back, all the work I have done, how much I have loved being here and all that Sandals does for the community,”

Ms Nixon said. “No one outside the business has any idea how much it costs to run a hotel every day,” she added. Ms Nixon handles just about everything online as paper checks go the way of rotary dial telephones. In the 13 years since she joined the company, she’s taken bookkeeping, accounting,

English and Microsoft, been promoted several times and, most recently, moved from internal audit to accounts payable.

“Brenette deserves the award she received. As our Diamond, her work ethic, sense of responsibility and her commitment to the community in which she was raised shines brightly,” said Jeremy Mutton, Sandals Emerald Bay’s general manager. “We are thrilled that her daughter is with us in the entertainment division as she studies nursing.”

“My mother once worked here, too, and that would have made three generations,” said Ms Nixon. “I cannot even imagine Exuma any more without Sandals or what my life would have been. I am as grateful as I am excited.” Now, she says, there is just one other little thing on her agenda - finishing her courses for her online college degree.