LaunchpadOne / About the founder

Nirmala Rodrigo

Founder · LaunchpadOne Consulting

Two decades inside Sri Lankan HR — so the people, payroll, and compliance you're handing over are in expert hands.

Nirmala Rodrigo, Founder of LaunchpadOne Consulting
20+
Years in HR
2011
LaunchpadOne founded
2
Board directorships
SL
Labour-law specialist

The firm

People systems, built by someone who has run them.

LaunchpadOne Consulting was founded in 2011 to give companies access to senior HR expertise without carrying it as a fixed cost — policy and process, compensation, governance, and the parts of employment most businesses would rather not think about.

What started as HR advisory has grown into something more infrastructural. Through ReadyWorkforce, the firm now employs people in Sri Lanka on behalf of companies abroad — carrying the contracts, the payroll, and the statutory risk so a business in Sydney or Austin can build a team here without opening a company.

That work sits on a simple foundation: it is run by someone who spent twenty years doing HR from the inside, at some of Sri Lanka's most demanding employers, before advising others on how to do it well.

Track record

Two decades, from the factory floor to the boardroom.

2011 — present

Founder

LaunchpadOne Consulting

HR transformation, compensation benchmarking, and employer-of-record services for local and international clients, including firms in the US and Australia.

Earlier

Manager, HR & Administration

MAS Holdings

People operations at one of South Asia's largest apparel manufacturers — a scale of workforce and compliance few HR professionals in the region get to work at.

Earlier

Manager, HR

W M Mendis & Co Ltd

Human resources leadership within an established Sri Lankan manufacturing business.

Dates and role detail are indicative — confirm and expand before publishing.

Why this matters to you

When you hand payroll and compliance to a vendor abroad, you are really trusting a person.

The value of an employer of record is only as good as the judgement behind it — knowing when a termination needs care, when a contribution rate has changed, when a contract clause will or won't hold. That judgement comes from having done the work, not from a platform. It's what fifteen years of running LaunchpadOne, on top of twenty in the field, is there to give you.

Beyond the firm

Trusted at board level.

Current governance roles that speak to how Nirmala is regarded by other Sri Lankan businesses.

Independent Non-Executive Director

The Intelligentz Global (Pvt) Ltd

Independent board oversight and governance.

Executive Director

Old Ceylon Holdings (Pvt) Ltd

Executive leadership at board level.

Community

Rotary Club of Colombo Fort

Treasurer — trusted with the club's finances and reporting.

Network

TiE Colombo

Active member of the entrepreneurs' network.

"
We build relationships, not transactions. When something goes wrong at 5pm on a Friday, you want a person who already knows your business to pick up.

— Nirmala Rodrigo, Founder

Get started

Talk to the person who'll run your account.

Not a sales desk. Tell us what you're trying to build in Sri Lanka, and Nirmala will come back to you directly.