Sacking pushed jobs queen Sarina Russo to build a business empire

Sarina Russo says the experience of being fired from her job as a secretary drove her to start what became Australia’s largest private provider of employment services.

Employment entrepreneur Sarina Russo has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the King’s Birthday Honours.

Sarina Russo says the experience of being fired from her job as a ­secretary gave her the passion to start what became Australia’s largest private provider of employment services.

The child of Italian migrants, whose catchphrase “meet you at the top” has become synonymous with her Brisbane-based business, was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the King’s Birthday Honours for ­services to the employment sector over more than 40 years.

“I am as committed today as I was 46 year ago when I was fired as a legal secretary,” Ms Russo said. “I never gave up and I had ­always had self-belief. I had tears in my eyes when I was informed about this award. You do things because you are passionate.”

Ms Russo started a small ­typing school in 1979 with nine students. On graduation, she promised all the students jobs and she delivered. The small typing school eventually grew into an education, training, recruitment and apprenticeship empire ­spanning more than 200 sites throughout Australia, the UK, India, Vietnam and China.

Over the past four decades, the Sarina Russo Group has educated over 113,000 students from 88 countries. The businesswoman, who is worth an estimated $271m, is a top-level networker and has close connections with political figures around the country. She has previously spoken of her passion for helping the disadvantaged to get back on their feet.

“I am a great believer in the dignity of having a job,” Ms Russo said. “Along the way, we have helped hundreds of thousands of people and their families. I came here as a migrant aged five and I thank my parents for having the foresight to leave their little village in Sicily and build a new life here. My father taught me the value of discipline and the idea of embracing opportunity whenever you can. They told me when I was at All Hallows’ (School in Brisbane) that I would never make it to year 12. Now I am a graduate of Harvard Business School.”

Ms Russo said the job market today was unrecognisable from what it was when she started her business in the 1970s. “You never used to be able to negotiate your salary and there was no thought about discrimination,” she said.

She welcomed the flexibility of work from home arrangements that had been introduced following the Covid-19 pandemic.

“If you have a job you have dignity and it helps your mental health,” Ms Russo said. “If you have a job, you become financially independent and absolutely empowered. You can become more, enjoy more, have more and see more. So today, I’m going to say to you and say to myself … let’s get a job, let’s get excited, let’s get that passion growing.”

Ms Russo said she was concerned about the growing problem of homelessness in Australia.

“(I was) walking through the Brisbane CBD the other day and did not recognise it because of the level of homelessness,” she said. “I decided then that would never complain about my life again.”

Originally published as Sacking pushed jobs queen Sarina Russo to build a business empire