{guestbooks_dataset::firstname} {guestbooks_dataset::lastname}
{guestbooks_dataset::businesstitle} FROM {guestbooks_dataset::origin}
{guestbooks_dataset::time}
Author: Reporter, Palm Jumeirah Journalism Club
Dubai is awash with successful business people and self-made entrepreneurs who have all got fascinating stories to tell of overcoming the odds and pushing the boundaries. The problem is often that the depth of their achievements does not necessarily match the breadth of their ego. It's refreshing, then, to meet the entire opposite – successful in business yet understated and genuinely modest, driven and ambitious yet oozing integrity and fair dealing. And best of all, a lady in every sense of the word.
Salina Handa runs the ultimate juggling act – devoted wife, mother of twin girls who have just celebrated their first birthday and forthright business woman. But even with all of these balls in the air she is calm and relaxed – perhaps a reflection of her chosen profession, perhaps an example of her sheer professionalism.
"We had a strawberry shortcake party for the twin's birthday – totally for the mums' benefit!" she laughs and cracks a perfect smile and at once you can see where her life's top priority lies.
"I remember when they told me it was twins; six weeks into my pregnancy, it was over whelming at first you dream of having a family and the all of a sudden it's all coming at once. Be careful what you wish for! But I adore them, Soraya and Sienna, they are the loves of my life." "Don't tell Kavit I said that!" she jokes.
Kavit is the man in the shadows, a successful business man in his own right, running one of the UAE's premier financial services companies, he stands squarely behind Salina, offering support and advice when needed and staying away when it's best.
"...he more than pulls his weight with the kids, I guess I'm really lucky there, and in business he has a great head for figures."
The pair met when Salina joined Merrill Lynch in Dubai and she instantly hated him!
"I don't think I spoke to him for a month or two when I first joined and then slowly he got under my skin, and went and swept me off my feet and now we have been married for eight years, but it seems like yesterday."
"Up until then I had been kind of nomadic, and loving it. I grew up in Thailand, then went to university in Boston – my sister was there so it felt right and, to be honest, I had the best four years of my life – again – don't tell Kavit! Then my sister moved to Dubai, I followed and never left!"
She has tried her hand at a number of business ventures over the years, some successful some less so, and so it was understandable when her ever-supportive husband thought that the latest one would be no more than another passing fad.
"I've always been a spa junkie. We were on holiday in Vietnam and he was off to play golf and so I opted for the spa and loved it and decided on the spot that I could do this."
To prove to everyone, including herself, that this was a serious business proposition Salina headed for Chiva Som, in Thailand, where she trained in all aspects of running and managing a successful spa and out of this was born SensAsia. There are now two branches in Dubai including the one in the shoreline apartments of the Palm.
"There are still so many challenges; mainly finding and retaining good people. It will always be tough, not just therapists but the whole range of people that need to run a business and, of course, everything I do now revolves around two precious one-year-olds, who run my life much more than I run theirs! They have such different personalities one is definitely the naughtiest – she takes after me!"
