For spotting an opportunity, Alexandra is equal to the task

After spending much of her career trying to ensure other people get fair treatment in the workplace, Alexandra Papadopoulos is now seizing her own opportunity in the private sector.

While her recently established company Workplace Solutions is still very much in its infancy, the timing for Ms Papadopoulos could not have been better.

A longtime Hong Kong resident, Australian-born Ms Papadopoulos was employed by the Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) for nine years, a period that she says provided much food for thought on workplace environments and relation with workers and their rights.

'I arrived in Hong Kong in 1992 and was working for the government doing prosecution work and really enjoyed it but wanted to develop other skills,' says Ms Papadopolous. 'So I did a post-graduate diploma out of Sydney University majoring in arbitration and alternative dispute resolution [mediation], which interested me greatly and was something I was told I was quite good at.

'In 1996, I saw an EOC advertisement for a legal adviser required to head up the legal services division and the role of mediator was one I was extremely interested in, however, little did I realise I would dedicate myself to this for nine years.

'My motivations for establishing Workplace Solutions was that I now want to fill the gap I have become aware exists between an existing government statutory, and neutral, authority in its provision of very general advice and that given by the big human resource companies and legal firms, as prior to my company there was nothing in between.'

In September, she established her company to meet the needs of organisations which require expert knowledge to create working environments that are conducive to happy and productive employees and which result in satisfied customers.