Adam Centorrino, Founder and CEO, Centorrino Pty. Ltd.

 Adam Centorrino has shown incredible commitment to supporting staff, clients and vendors during the COVID-19 pandemic. His people-focused leadership was the pivotal factor in the company’s ability to maintain a positive internal culture and stay financially healthy despite the pandemic. When it became apparent the virus would be a critical workforce issue, Centorrino made a promise that no employee would lose their job due to the pandemic, which was successfully upheld throughout the year. This commitment was made even before the announcement of JobKeeper, the federal government subsidy for Australian businesses.

Adam created multiple initiatives to reduce stress, improve employee well-being, and preserve employee connections and relations, with an agile leadership approach designed to rapidly implement effective solutions. The successful strategies he implemented during the pandemic included initiating regular professional and social online catch-ups to support staff, hosting frequent polls to continually track employee happiness and feedback, creating a new Employee Assistance Program for anyone who needed mental and well-being support and increasing staff headcount in support roles to meet client demand, while developing a new working-from-home onboarding strategy.  

Centorrino also provided crucial support to clients and vendors during the global pandemic, offering discounts to any clients who found themselves in hardship due to COVID-19. Furthermore, he created a parental help desk for the company’s education clients at no additional cost, which served to support parents with students studying at home. For vendors, he implemented faster, one-week payment terms to ensure their businesses could survive.  Centorrino demonstrated extraordinary leadership in providing support and assistance to staff, clients and vendors during the most difficult year this century.