Growing your career with Unispace: Meet Alex Brownlie, Regional Health & Safety Manager for APAC
Great workplaces start with great people. Our people are the heart of Unispace, and it’s their drive, collaborative spirit and vision that allows us to constantly push the boundaries of what’s possible for our clients.
That’s why our culture of learning and development is so important. We hire the right people, and once they’re through the doors we invest in them as the future of our business, giving them the support, training and resources, they need to do their best work.
Our people’s stories are our story, so we wanted to share some of those stories here. This month we sat down with Alex Brownlie, our Regional Health & Safety Manager for Asia-Pacific, to talk about his journey and how developing talent is in our DNA.
Hi Alex, tell us a bit about you and your background
Hello! Six years ago, I was working as a scaffolder in the mining sector in Western Australia. Fly-in-fly-out as a career was on the cards for me – not because I’d chosen it, but because I didn’t finish high school or get a degree. I always felt like my options were seriously limited.
Fast-forward six years, and I’m Unispace’s Regional Health & Safety Manager for Asia-Pacific. Not bad going.
Sounds like your career trajectory has been anything but ordinary.
I’ve definitely taken the path less travelled. I’ve always been bold, adaptable, and always been really people-centric.
It turned out those are all qualities that are really valued at Unispace, so I was a natural fit here from day one.
Being a scaffolder is a long way from where you are now – could you tell us a bit more about that journey?
Absolutely. I’ve always been driven and happy to put the graft in, but I’ve also been really lucky to have worked with some incredible leaders and mentors over the years. Especially early on, I really relied on people who believed in my potential and focussed on who I am and what I’m capable of, rather than my CV.
I’ve worked with companies who invested in my growth and development and helped me obtain the qualifications I needed to succeed in the Health and Safety space. Often that came from leaders who had a bit of vision and who took a chance on a scaffolder with a real passion for creating safer work environments.
That gave me the motivation to put in the effort beyond ‘on the job’ learning to get to where I am now and complete all the qualifications of a Regional Health & Safety Manager.
Being at Unispace has been phenomenal. Developing their people is just part of the DNA of the company. People are given whatever tools and resources they need to do their job as well as they can. It makes this a really exciting place to work, and it’s a big part of what makes us such a great partner for clients.
How are you finding your current role?
I’m the Regional Health & Safety Manager for Asia-Pacific, and I love it. I’m so passionate about the job – there’s nothing more important to me than making sure our people get home safely to their families at the end of the day.
It’s an agenda that Unispace is absolutely committed to. That means we get all the support we need to constantly develop our in-house capabilities and deliver world-class processes. I’m 18 months in, and my team just have not stopped kicking goals! In Singapore we recently won the bizSAFE STAR certification, the highest level for workers' health and safety in Singapore and last year we launched a SaferTogether campaign globally laying the foundation to our ongoing commitment to safety.
And what comes next?
Unispace is one global team, with studios in 25 cities worldwide. The business is amazing at accommodating people’s growth and development, and really open to letting people move to new cities or new countries – whatever works best for our people and our clients.
So we’ll see! I’m really happy where I am, but I’m always looking for what comes next – I’ll keep driving change, keep challenging industry norms, keep Unispace leading from the front and raising standards for the sector… and let’s see what the future brings. It feels like the sky’s the limit at this point, honestly!
What would you say to someone considering a career at Unispace?
This is an amazing place to work for the right kind of person. We work hard, we move fast and we’re constantly looking to find better ways of doing what we do. Confident, talented people who can spot opportunities, manage fast-moving projects and stay laser-focussed on exceeding our clients’ expectations do well here!
If that’s you, I promise you’ll absolutely fly at Unispace. It’s a company where the opportunities keep coming – it’s just up to you which ones you reach out and grab.
Join our team
Considering a career with Unispace? We’re always keen to hear from fearless, results-driven people who are hungry for new opportunities. Find out more about working here and view our current vacancies now on our careers page.
