Taking a model approach to work, life and love

She’s tall, tanned and beautiful, impeccably dressed in a white shift dress with black trim, her golden glow the result of a few hours in the North Antrim sunshine, at the home in Portrush she shares with golf legend husband Darren Clarke.

“Life is busy, running from one thing to the other, to my job, to my husband, to my kids, to my house,” she affirms, although her relaxed demeanour and faultless appearance in no way gives any clue as to the hectic nature of her life.

As the boss of ACA Models, and the organiser of Miss Northern Ireland, Alison has been responsible for launching the career of a host of some of the country’s most well known girls, from Lucy Evangelista and Zoe Salmon, to Joanne Salley and Judith Wilson.

But she’s a household name herself, and is as famous for her prowess in the business and modelling world as she is for being the wife of one of the world’s most successful golfers.

“My hobby became my business, and no job is ever too big or too small for me to do,” she says. “You’ll still find me on certain occasions hoovering around the office or cleaning the bathroom or kitchen.

“I don’t have any qualms about doing that, nothing is beneath me.”

Ultimately, ACA Models is Alison’s baby, her creation, which she started just one day after leaving an 11-year-career with the Ulster Bank.

“ACA was born on November 1,” she says.

“It was tough at the beginning; it was the 90s, and there was still political unrest in Northern Ireland. I started off with zero and had to build it up.

“It takes you nearly the first three years to get anywhere when you’re starting out in a new business. Plus I had my second son in 1992, so I finished work one day, went into hospital to have him the next, and in those days you stayed in for maybe five or six days. I came out and went back to work with him with me.”

Alison Smyth from Strabane joined the Bank as an administrator in the bullion department after leaving school, enticed by the promise of financial independence and the end of exams and studying - for a while at least.

She spent three years separating Irish and British currency, sorting cheques, statements and ledgers, but it was when she won Miss Northern Ireland in 1982 that her career started to skyrocket.

“A lovely man called John Kenny was in charge of public relations, and he saw the value of the bank using me in their PR department, so he brought me in to work with him. I was his sidekick for quite a number of years until he retired.”

Alison was then involved in the marketing and sales departments, and eventually business development, and as her employer’s profile rose, so too did her own range of contacts in the media world.

Soon, crunch time came - and she had to make a decision if she wanted to stay and advance her career with the bank further, or break out on her own.

“I had joined the bank because I didn’t want to do any more exams. In the Ulster Bank, you had to do bank exams, and I just thought you know what, I‘ve gone as far as I can, I couldn’t get promotion unless I did these exams, and I thought I didn’t need to do them and could do the job anyway, but it was protocol.”

Since 1987, she had been organising the Miss Northern Ireland contest; her work was becoming more and more well known, and an increasing number of people were approaching her for her help in securing models for different jobs.

She realised there was, essentially, a gap in the market, and ACA was born. And being a former Miss Northern Ireland herself had helped her greatly in her journey to reach this point.

“If I hadn’t won Miss Northern Ireland, dear knows where I would be,” she tells me candidly.

“I probably would have stayed in the bank - I might have done my exams. I wasn’t prepared to sit at the bottom all my life, I wanted to get on.”

More than 25 years on, life at the helm of her own modelling agency is busier than ever.

“No two days are ever the same,” she says, as she fills me in on where she intends to be for the rest of the week.

Generally, that pattern includes three days in the office - a 1 hour 15 minute commute from her Portrush home - a day working from home, and a day off, although in reality, she remains connected with her office over that 24 hour period as well. And she’s connected to her business 24/7. That’s how she likes it, and that’s why she’s successful.

“I think the key to running a successful business is, don’t ever take your eye off the ball, become involved, and don’t leave to others what you can do yourself,” she says slowly and carefully in response to my question.

“I am 24/7, literally, even if I go on holiday, I am always working, I don’t ever switch off.

“It’s a way of life.”

When she gets five minutes, she says she loves to sit down with a cup of coffee and relax; no pavement pounding or visits to the gym for her, although her svelte figure would belie that.

“I hate the gym - and we have one in our own home,” she admits. “I just can’t apply myself. My life is non-stop all the time, so if I have 20 minutes off, I want to chill.

“I do have a fit lifestyle in that I’m not sitting at a desk all the time, and I do watch what I eat - I don’t let myself go overboard, though I have a very sweet tooth.

“If I feel that I’m tipping scales, I try and cut down during the week and have salads or soups for lunch and fish in the evenings etc.”

For Alison Clarke, her track record to date is certainly impressive, and her future is bright. And she has no plans to slow down just yet.

“We completed 30 years of Miss Northern Ireland there last month,” she grins, adding: “I don’t think I could be at home doing nothing.

“So as to the future, it’s just more of the same please.”