Meet our team
The Team
Sarina Russo AM
Sarina's passion, persistence and self-belief transformed her from a fired legal secretary into a fired-up international entrepreneur in education, training and employment. For over 45 years, Sarina has grown her typing school into a global business, enhancing hundreds of thousands of lives across Australia and the world, and creating a lasting impact on the industry and the communities the company serves.
Kathleen Newcombe
Kathleen‘s a passionate advocate for lifelong learning, Kathleen has over thirty years of experience in the Higher Education, Vocational Training and Employment sectors both in Australia and the USA. Kathleen also spent three years in leadership roles in the Insurance industry where she successfully managed a Health Insurance business catering to the International Education sector.
Maria Berlese
Maria’s skill set is to attract and develop the best talent in the education, training and employment industries. Maria has the responsibility to foster the careers over 1,000 professional and dedicated staff – in doing so she directly influences the lives, and careers, of tens of thousands of people every year.
Mark Berlese
Mark‘s is an absolute motivational powerhouse when it comes to enhancing the lives of Sarina Russo’s customers. His can-do leadership style sparks new ideas that deliver sure-fire results for customers – getting them that job. Mark has undertaken executive studies in the USA at Stanford, Cornell and Harvard University in the areas of Leadership, Marketing and Human Resource Management.
Justin Sharp
Justin has 20 plus years’ legal experience acting exclusively for clients in the Employment, Education and Health sectors. Justin has an in-depth understanding across these sectors including contractual requirements, governance and regulatory, privacy, data security and risk management.
Vanessa Chapman
Vanessa has worked in the employment services industry for over 25 years. She joined the Sarina Russo Group in 2004 and is responsible for quality assurance and contractual compliance of government contracts across the group.
