Contino APAC Welcomes Penelopi Stefanopoulos as New People Manager

Penelopi reveals why she entered HR, her passions outside the office and the superpower she would love to have.

Tell us a little bit about your background?

I've spent my career (totalling 13 years at present) dedicated to HR. There has never been doubt in my mind that HR wasn't my true career calling.

Most of my time has been spent in generalist roles, as this was critical to my career goal of being a strong HR generalist before I moved into a leadership role.

I've worked across three main industry sectors - Higher Education, Financial Services and IT.

The last four years I was working for Odecee, a digital consultancy focussed on delivering web, mobile and DevOps solution to tier one enterprises, predominantly in the financial services industry sector in Australia.

I love working for companies that care about their people and are invested in fostering work cultures that enables its people to be successful. This is my passion. I love it!

Why did you join Contino?

I was super impressed with my interactions with Katie (Global VP of Talent), Gerhard (VP of Talent - APAC) and Andrew (VP of Consulting - APAC) and also the research I did online.

I love the community feeling and could see the passion amongst the team. I was excited by it and wanted to be apart of it.

If you could have any superpower what would it be?

I would love the power to turn mean people into nice people.

Having personally experienced bullying in my early days of high school, I know how soul destroying it can be. Being a mother now, this feeling has amplified!

What's the favourite part about your role?

I would say my favourite part of my role is seeing my team members happy, growing and doing amazing things with their careers. There's nothing more rewarding for me!

Outside of work what are you most passionate about?

My daughter is my greatest passion. She's two-and-a-half-years-old and full of energy (like, a lot of energy - no joke!)

I love spending dedicated quality time with her, for example, every Friday we have our girlie day, where we spend the day doing activities she loves, like dancing, arts and crafts, playing and of course babycino time with her chippies (her ultimate favourite food!)

If you had free time to study something what would it be?

I would love to get certification in Life Coaching.

I love listening to and reading books about people’s journey through life and the events that helped change and shape them to achieve success. We all have so much hidden potential!