Veena Mistry: Journey to Success

Your future may not be a one way road: expect rejection, re-routing and redirection 

Veena Mistry, past executive director at Goldman Sachs, UN women volunteer and current business owner offers her story and journey into the world of business, whilst teaching the importance of perserverance. 

Veena’s STEM vs Hollyoaks ventures 

Veena’s Journey was not so ‘standard’. She was the first generation born in the UK as her parents were born in Kenya and Uganda. Veena felt uncertain regarding which career she wanted to choose, but despite this, her parents encouraged her (and indeed, expected her) to pursue a university degree…

Although finding Mathematics challenging this didn’t stop Veena from smashing her degree whilst also funding it herself working multiple jobs ranging from the entertainments department at UoL to being an extra in Hollyoaks. 

Who knew there would be positive correlation between maths and Hollyoaks?

Veena’s time at university began to open her eyes to all the opportunities at her fingertips; it became evident that there was a vast array of cultures and backgrounds present amongst her peers, yet they all came together for the same purpose.

This signals towards the importance of university and how new insights and inspirations are encouraged every day which eventually feed into future projects. 

Post- Grad Puzzlement: Career changes and Corporate life 

After graduation, another shift surfaced for Veena. Working as a production staff member on mastermind and A Question of Sport during the summer, she landed a job making childrens TV. Despite being grateful for this grad job, it didn’t push Veena to her potential as she felt her passions and skillset were unfilled within this role. 

Taking a risk and following what you feel is sometimes more important than sticking with security. 

Veena then ventured into the financial services industry beginning at the Cooperative; this then influenced her skills within credit risk analyst and the use of coding on applications like SAS.  After working on this technical role, she then started an internship within investment banking at Deutsche Bank on Wall St in New York. 

Since then, Veena has experienced vast opportunities within the world of investment banking around the globe. She has worked within Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Natwest, as well as consultancies in London such as Capco. 

Veena told WiB that “My proudest moment was telling my parents I was an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs”. This wasn’t as simple as it sounds however. She faced rejection but didn’t let it dampen her dreams. 

The key to success: 

Veena has now created her own business “Apex Sapphire Partners Limited”, specialising in providing SME consulting services to clients. This occurred after 18 years of building her brand, trust and networking within the industry which heavily implies the importance of never giving up. 

You will reach your goals, but stopping is only going to slow you down. 

She stated that without her Maths degree she felt as though her career would not have taken off as tremendously. Her degree helped her in many ways from enabling logical reasoning to asses situations more efficiently as well as offering the fallback of a degree which influences freedom and risk. Despite not following a structured graduate program, Veena has no regrets as she still reached exactly what she wanted. 

Veena’s family is extremely grateful for all the opportunity the UK has offered them. Donating £150,000 to charities in India and the UK in the name of her grandfather, Govindbhai Mistry, is how they given back to the UK whilst recognising their Indian heritage too.

It would be mundane if success was so easily achieved. Sorry to sound like a cliché, but it all goes back to the experiences encountered along the journey rather than the destination. 

And most importantly, it all works out eventually. Right?