Sandi Saksena

A long time resident of the Gulf, Sandi has lived in Kuwait, Bahrain and now in Dubai for the last 45 years. A late entrant into the work force, with no previous work experience she could not prepare a CV! However a small advertisement in the paper caught her attention more important she caught the attention of bosses at Nexus (formerly Eagle Star and then Zurich) and the rest is history! Sandi devotes her time and energies to her job in Personal Financial Planning. She is the first and only female sales manager (among 36 male sales managers) and leads an all female team of financial counsellors at Nexus Insurance Brokers. She heads the division ‘Family Matters’ at Echelon Advisors and Management Consultants her family firm. Her focus is financial advice and planning for Women and Small and Medium business owners among others. Sandi believes that building trust, and loyalty, sharing and giving, dealing with integrity and honesty are essential ingredients to success in both the personal and professional arena. Openness to new ideas is the key to growing your life. Sandi devotes time to children with special needs and is Owner/Permanent Trustee, and Head of Fund Raising of a centre for individuals with special needs called Manzil (www.manzil.ae). As part of community service she does presentations on financial planning at schools universities and women’s groups. She participates in major community service project in India in partnership with FOGSI (The Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India) Sandi is a regular contributor to the media on topics related to personal finance, is a regular guest speaker on radio and TV and is frequently quoted in the business pages of the Gulf News, Cashy ME and the Aquarius. She is a contributing writer to The intelligent SME, Parent Arabia, New You, Executive-Women and Capital Business among others .She is president of Women in Film and Television UAE chapter, a Life member of Athena International - www.athenainternational.org/‎ Supporting, developing and honoring women leaders and is on the advisory board of the Women’s division of the CEOs club UAE - www.ceoclubsuae.com and is an Event Partner with SPI holdings www.spigroup.ae Sandi enjoys physical and mental challenges and participates in various physical fitness challenges. Her accomplishments include: Sky diving, Rappelling, Boat Racing, Bungee Jumping, White Water Rafting, Horse riding and Trekking in the Himalayas and the Arctic Circle. Her spiritual quests have taken her to Peru, Bolivia, Bhutan, Mongolia, China and the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage in Tibet, going up to a height of 19,000 ft.