CorporateConnections™ provides global business leaders the ideal setting for generating exceptional and measurable results through executive networking opportunities. Our members join CorporateConnections™ to develop business relationships, gain access to advanced professional development opportunities and to participate in peer advisory groups. Our proven model helps you build strategic and tactical relationships through a structured and supportive environment comprised of other successful business owners and top executives. CorporateConnections™ is in UAE now and membership is open to qualified business persons and professionals.
“The first chapter of CorporateConnections in UAE is being established with business owners and senior executives aiming for accelerated growth. I am a firm believer in the power of networking and this has been instrumental in the phenomenal growth of my businesses, and CorporateConnections is a forum that will connect members to collectively achieve greater results. Join the first chapter and pioneer a new wave of business networking in UAE.”
CorporateConnections™ membership criteria ensures that each chapter has successful business persons and professionals who can leverage connections, add value to fellow members and sustain long term relationships. To join a chapter you must apply, qualify, and on approval pay the membership fees.
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Our proven referral system and global reach allows our members to connect with other strategic executives, locally and internationally to build avenues for revenue.
The combination of our global presence, defined membership criteria and interactive mobile application creates the perfect recipe for long-term alliances and relationships.
Our Forums act as a personal advisory board giving members a novel approach to resolving business and personal challenges in an intimate and confidential environment.
Access to world-class networking and leadership training offer members the benefits of continuous development at professional and personal level.
CorporateConnections™ meetings and interactions follow a proven structure and require regular attendance at bi-monthly meetings and participation in chapter events.
Sidarth Mahindra Chapter Chair
Jaber Abdul Wahab Member Chair
Shresht Sharma Experience Chair
Deepak Khushalani Forum Chair
Anand Kumar Govindan Strategy Chair
Chirantan Joshi Chapter Director
Rajesh Narayanan SBG Team
Ahmed Odeh Growth Team
Chirag Sabhnani Growth Team
Darshan Diljit Shah Visitor Team
Shirish Patwardhan Visitor Team
Satvinder Singh Bhatia Learning & Development
Mohammed Sutarwala Member
Manoj Aswani Member
Punit Shah Member
Ankur Chaturvedi Member
Atheeqe Ansari Member
Dhiral Doshi Member
Ramesh Tolani Member
Sankar Viswanath Member
Surendranath Dhanekula Member
Ali Hyder Member
Growth Team
Ahmed Odeh, could easily pass off as a model with his boyish look and muscular build. Actually he is a lawyer heading the law firm Mio Law. He has an established clientele in the Banking and Financial sector and his firm oversees real estate related cases for leading banks and insurance companies. Ahmed is not just a law graduate from Nottingham Law School but also has a Bachelor’s Degree in MIS from the University of Sharjah. As an educated and experienced legal eagle, Ahmed is taking his family law firm to higher heights. We welcome Ahmed Odeh to the chapter and hope that our members will find value in his contacts, that he is so modest about, and his expertise in resolving financial disputes as well as criminal breaches.
Member
Atheeqe Ansari is the founder of the leading cables and electrical distribution enterprise called Electric Way. His youthful vigor and infectious charm energizes the CorporateConnections™ UAE chapter. An avid technology buff Atheeqe has leveraged innovation to bring a paradigm shift in the electrical distribution business in the region. Atheeqe did his matriculation and under graduate degree from UAE and after founding Electric Way he continued studying to acquire his Masters degree in Business Administration. His company Electric Way is the biggest trading partner for Dubai Cables (DUCAB). A collector of art and watches, Atheeqe's aesthetic leanings are matched by his business acumen. We welcome Atheeqe and are sure that his innovative ideas, energy and jovial demeanor will help us all.
Growth Team
Chirag Sabhnani, the Luxury Realtor, born in 1987 is the youngest in the CC1 chapter and has the joined the circle of excellence to grow his family business of garment trading and their business of real estate that he joined in 2016. Chirag completed his Bachelor of Finance from the University of Wollongong in Dubai and is passionately accelerating Union Square House Real Estate that has exclusive access to premium properties in Dubai. Chirag is a personnel with cultured taste and the person to go to for luxury properties in the UAE or to connect to leading developers like Emaar, Dubai Properties, Dubai Holdings (Meraas), and Landmark. His role model is his father Ashok Sabhnani who taught him the importance of work-life balance. It is, therefore, not surprising that while he works at breakneck speed throughout the day, he finds adequate time to spend with his 4 year old son Garv, and his wife Ekta who gave up her jewellery design passion to bring up Garv.
Chapter Director
Chirantan Joshi is the co-founder of E-Movers, the largest relocation company in UAE. The Leather Doctor, a leading name for leather repairs is one of the group companies. Chirantan or CJ as he is fondly called by all, is also the co-founder of The Leaders Organization that holds the national franchise for CorporateConnections. "As an avid networker" CJ believes in the adage Givers Gain, and has made it his life-long mission to help his contacts prosper through referrals that he generously bestows. He is also a trainer and has published a toolbox on Time Management. The CorporateConnections chapter hopes to gain from his coaching skills and treasure of business connects.
Visitor Team
Darshan Diljit Shah hails from a family of reputed jewelers from Trichy famous for their firm N. Gopaldass Jewellers established in 1929. A passionate jeweler, Darshan lovingly known as Shyam, has over 24 years of experience in this trade and established Amina Jewellers in UAE in the year 2012. Known for their customized personal jewellery and bejeweled corporate gifts, his firm works with prestigious clients including Expo 2020. You are welcome to their retail stores in Dubai and Abu Dhabi as well as Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, and of course Trichy. He is married to Pankti, a physiotherapist turned jeweler, and has two teenage daughters Krupa and Anushri. Darshan is most impressed with the Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group and continues to draw his inspiration from them.
Member
Dhiral Doshi, aka Daniel, our newest and youngest member just turned thirty-one and has been gathering experience since he was eighteen. Dhiral manages several businesses in South Sudan and made his debut in Dubai recently. His businesses include an automobile agency, a construction company, a building materials trading company, an advertising firm, and a forex bureau. Most recently he opened a company for hair-gain products distribution, and a clinic for hair implants. Dhiral has considerable reach in relief and support organizations operating in South Sudan and is most impressed with Ratan Tata for his humility despite his powerful position, and for achieving the dual goal of profitability and a happy workforce.
Member Chair
Jaber Abul Wahab experience and achievement belie his young age and he has featured in the Young Indian Visionary book released in 2018. As CEO of the Bridgeway Group of Companies, Jaber holds together a set of companies in Shipping, Logistics, Engineering, Real Estate, Automotive Trade and Marketing, managed by his family. His group also has interests in social welfare projects. In UAE the group provides logistics support to retail giants like Jumbo and Al Futtaim, while in his hometown of Kerala, the Maruti dealership delivers a car every hour. A go-getter with a wide portfolio, Jaber lends to the CorporateConnections chapter his extensive network and social sensibilities.
Chapter Director
Mohammed Sutarwala, runs Emqube, a software development company in Dubai since 2003, and Swan Solutions, an IT infrastructure services company in Mumbai since 1989. Living in Dubai, he is hands-on in Emqube, while Swan is fully empowered company running independently by an empowered management. Mohammed is a business transformation technologist marrying business imperatives with technology solutions to enable exponential growth. He is on the IBPC Steering Committee for Technology and co-founder of a peer-support group called Latte Club. Married to Rehana since 1993, he has a daughter Arwa who is pursuing a degree in Culinary Art, at Ecole Ducasse, Paris.
SBG Team
Rajesh Narayanan is the Co-Founder & COO of Granteq LLC, a solution integrator in the field of Audio Visual and Unified Communications technologies. A soft-spoken go-getter Rajesh completed his post-graduate diploma in Computer Application and further qualified in Personnel Management & Industrial Relations. An entrepreneur since the last 12 years he has a total work experience of 28 years. Granteq is an established player in the domain of Education, Oil & Gas, BFSI, Retail, Healthcare, Hospitality, Corporate etc and enjoys a deep rapport with clients representing a wide spectrum across Middle East & Africa. Rajesh’s athletic build may be attributed to his passion for cricket and badminton, and his mental bliss to his wife Jyothy and daughter Sameeksha and younger son Bharat. He venerates his late father who he believes was ahead of his time; an individual with great creative and adaptive skills.
Member
We are pleased to introduce a member who is the epitome of Swiss quality and resolve. Meet Sankar Viswanath, the name in UAE, behind the hugely famous furniture brand Vitra. His company Swiss Corporate for Design and Technology is sole authorized distributor for VITRA in the United Arab Emirates. Swisscotec is also the company that supplies and maintains the quality automatic doors of Gilgen that you walk through in most gas stations in UAE. A UAE resident since 1983, Sankar operates from an ultra-chic office showroom in the Design District. He is the man who can open many doors and if you open a door for him, he is sure to bag the deal.
Learning & Development
CorporateConnections™ is pleased to welcome Satvinder Singh Bhatia to the first UAE Chapter. Mr. Bhatia is the founder of the Platinum Group of Companies in the business of insurance brokerage and investment advisory. With over 26 years of professional experience, he and his team serve a large set of corporate customers and high net worth individuals in UAE. He is the man to secure your future with his complementary set of skills. He helps you multiply your money with his investment counsel and at the same time mitigates your losses through insurance.
Visitor Team
Shirish Patwardhan's company RChemie has the rare distinction of serving almost any and all industries in UAE that need chemical raw materials and or speciality oils. He also has a manufacturing unit for anti-freezant and adhesives, and his affinity for these products is evident in his cool demeanour and the sticky relationships he maintains with everyone. Total work experience of 36 years has 14 years of being his own boss. He is a workaholic and enjoys a strong rapport with industry-leading companies such as TOTAL MiddleEast, FOSROC, DABUR, AL GURG, BURJ EIFFEL, to name a few. Shirish, recently got his son married and is now enjoying the care and attention of two women at home, his wife and his doting daughter-in-law. Shirish is a Warren Buffet fan and perhaps his own clarity of thought and philanthropic ambitions, are derived from Buffet's traits that he reveres the most. CC members can bank on his experience and connects that he has cultivated over the years.
Experience Chair
Shresht Sharma, CEO at 3S Group of Companies, as his name suggests wants to excel in all he does and has sprouted a string of businesses over the last 16 years that bear his stamp of excellence. An MBA by education, Shresht helps businesses to register in UAE and additionally accommodates their operations through his swanky Business Centre on Sheikh Zayed Road. Under the group, his other businesses include accounting, unbreakable eyewear, investments to aviation brokerage. His belief in people makes it easier to partner with new businesses and help them grow. He admires Richard Branson for his foresight and flamboyance, and Shresht is a gadget-geek sporting the latest launches. His two kids, wife and parents make a closely-knit family in Dubai. Shresht brings to CorporateConnections his energy, good nature, and a host of connections given that he has helped over 4000 companies take roots in UAE.
Forum Chair
Deepak Khushalani, is the Founder and CEO of Premier Logistics Corporation which offers a full range of logistics and supply chain solutions and was voted the best Supply Chain Solutions Provider in 2019. Deepak, a management graduate from Indiana University, USA, also features in the Top 50 list of most influential logistics & transport CEOs in Middle East. Deepak is an avid networker and can be your connection to blue-chip MNCs in the region. An ardent fan of Elon Musk, he likes to dream big, think out of the box and work hard to execute his vision. Deepak is married to Anjali who is a fashion designer by profession and curates chic Indian and Western wear for her clientele, which also include famous celebrities. He loves to travel and explore places that help him discover his inner self.
Member
Ramesh Tolani is the CEO and Managing Director of Model Engineering Consultants, an architecture and engineering design firm specialized in the building of high rise towers, shopping malls & bespoke luxury mansions and all types of civil construction projects. Ramesh is a civil engineering graduate and has a Masters in Architecture from England. The company he took over in 1993 will celebrate its Golden Jubilee in 2022 and has over 600 successful projects in its portfolio. Ramesh runs several other companies in related fields, notably amongst them is Terrafic Energy, a sustainable product and services company that is introducing revolutionary water generating and power-saving devices. Ramesh spends his free time gardening and is totally submerged in his passion for hydroponics. He is developing techniques to make small scale hydroponic farming a household activity. Happily married to Malvika, Ramesh is a proud father of three kids, two daughters and a son, that have come of age.
Member
Punit Shah is a smooth operator and not just for his City One Tourism and Travel company but in almost all aspects of his life. A BSc degree with a finance major may give him the commercial edge, but it is his charm and service that keeps his business growing. He also helps manage the family business in hospitality and brewery. Punit is your gateway to African economies and has good connections in Uganda where K-Hotel and Yuti Breweries are based. Punit is also well connected to tourism authorities and industry globally and is your best for a family holiday or MICE for your company. A fitness aficionado he believes in a regular workout and healthy habits. He loves snorkeling, swimming and spending time with his children Yuti, Rudra and wife Maansi. CorporateConnections™ National Director Chirantan Joshi is a role model for him, and his favorite read is The Twilight Saga. Welcome to CC1 Dubai Punit, we love your energy.
Member
Manoj Aswani represents Ironman 4x4 Middle East entity, a company that gives 4x4 vehicles a robust identity and superior suspension. He is also the owner of DAW Automobile Assembly FZCO since 2012. A graduate in Business Administration, Manoj has over four decades of experience in the field of automobile, mining, defense, international aid, and development. Behind the gentle visage is a discerning entrepreneur ready to identify and make the most of opportunities. He deeply admires Tom Jacob, the founder of Ironman 4X4 Australia, for his unwavering confidence and self-belief in achieving goals. Manoj rates Joseph Murphy’s ‘Power Of Your Subconscious Mind’ as must-read and finds motivation in Robin Sharma’s ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’. Very much like his business, he is passionate about action movies and is an avid off-roader who finds the time to enjoy the thrills of motorcycling. Manoj is married to Neelam and is blessed with a lovely daughter Sakshi who helps with the marketing of his companies. Welcome to CorporateConnections™ Manoj.
Member
Ankur Chaturvedi is the Managing Director of Jord Industries FZC, an engineering and maintenance business. The company has expertise in district cooling, ETS stations, standalone chillers and MEP for residential and commercial high-rise buildings. They provide solutions to leading companies such as Emaar Properties, AQAAR Properties, Tabreed, Emicool, ARENCO, Emaar Community Management, Emaar District Cooling, and Dubai South. Ankur earned his Masters’ degree in Family Managed Business after doing his BA in Business Studies and founded his company in 2006. Beneath his boyish visage is an astute and experienced entrepreneur willing to explore new avenues for growth. He admires his father for his entrepreneurial passion, indomitable grit and determination in difficult times. The depth of his father’s ideas never ceases to amaze him. Ankur is also a member of the Indian Business and Professional Council of Dubai (IBPC) and loves to network with people that help him build new strengths and gives him new perspectives to explore. Ankur loves to watch movies and listen to music when not at work and finds great amusement in comics. Perhaps his wife Ankita, a HR professional, can tell us his favorite characters and their influence on his life. Welcome to CorporateConnections™ Ankur.
Chapter Chair
Sidarth Mahindra, fondly called Sid, is the Managing Director of Value Pets Supplies Trading LLC, Dubai & India. His love and passion for pets culminated into a niche business of pet consumables when he launched Pet Corner in 2004. His company operates several pet stores and a veterinary clinic. You can buy the products his company manufactures and distributes, on their online platform or through their pet store on wheels. Mobile vans for pet grooming is an innovative service they provide as is the building and maintenance of fresh and marine water aquariums. A graduate from the American University of Dubai, he earned his MBA in Corporate Finance & Investment from Cass Business School, UK. Sid is a passionate entrepreneur who vehemently believes that his slogan ‘better store’ is a better slogan than a ‘bigger store’ for building a bigger business. With eight outlets, 60 team members and over 10,000 products, he surely got the words right. Sid reads regularly and rates Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad as favourite non-fiction while his tastes in fiction ranges from the classy To-Kill-A-Mockingbird to the more classical Macbeth. His pastimes are thrills like jet skiing, off-roading and scuba diving. Married to Aakriti, a clinical psychologist, the couple is blessed with two young boys. The next time you go to a farm and find the rabbits busy, they are probably feeding on the food from Sid’s store.
Strategy Chair
Anand Kumar Govindan adds to the youthful energy of the CC1 Dubai chapter. Armed with a degree in management and experience of over 12 years, our newest member is just about 33 years young. The Abra Group that he leads with his family members and an experienced team is synonymous with luxury retail. It caters to UAE and the region from a 120,000 sq. ft. Dubai based facility dedicated to luxury retail shop-fittings. The group has recently expanded into retail fitouts and is opening regional production centres in the near future. Tall and lean, Anand's calm and composed demeanour masks the ambition he harbours to succeed exponentially. He is unequivocally impressed by Patrick Chalhoub who built an empire in luxury retail in such a short span while inculcating an enviable corporate culture. Anand is married to Preeti, a Healthcare IT professional, and his passions include traveling, exploring new cultures and trying out varied cuisines. Welcome to CorporateConnections, Dubai.
Member
Surendranath Dhanekula is the Chairman of TransAsia Group founded in 2006. An engineering graduate from the National Institute of Technology, Nagpur, Surendra has over two decades of experience in the field of pipelines and process services. His company serves the who-is-who of the regional Oil & Gas industry including behemoths like ADNOC, ARAMCO, McDermott and Dubai Petroleum.
He deeply admires Dhirubhai Ambani, the founder of Reliance Industries, for scaling great heights despite bureaucratic policies. Surendra rates Jim Collin’s ‘Good to Great’ as a must-read for every business founder and is as passionate about seeing the world as much as watching movies. Surendra is married to Sruthi and is blessed with two lovely boys named Eshaan and Rohan.
Welcome to CorporateConnections™ Surendra.
Member
Ali Hyder, Group CEO of Focus Softnet, brings in 30 years of experience in the ERP/CRM market. His company caters to multiple verticals while specializing in sales & distribution, retail, real estate, facilities management, and manufacturing sectors. They provide ERP/CRM/HRM solutions to leading companies such as Diversey Lever Inc, SFC Group, National Bonds Corp, Sealed Air Corp and Yellow Flower Group.
An MBA graduate, Ali deeply admires Azim Premji, the Founder Chairman of Wipro Limited for his entrepreneurial passion, vision and indomitable grit to make it one of the top-notch IT companies in India. Ali reads regularly and rates ‘New Ideas from Dead CEOs’ as his favourite non-fiction while his tastes in fiction range from detective to suspense stories by Robert Ludlum, John Grisham and Ibne Safi. In his free time. Ali loves to read, solve puzzles, problems and explore sporting ventures. Married to Nafeesa, the couple is blessed with four children, who are all smart grown-ups now.