Miraflor Laput and Usha D’Souza have both recently celebrated their 10 year work anniversary at Sovereign, Dubai. We caught up with them to learn more about their background and why they continue to love working for the Group.
Miraflor (known to everyone as Mira) hails from Mindanao in the Philippines and came to Dubai back in 2008. She is married and is the proud mother of a nine year old son.
A Client Relationship Administrator, she joined Sovereign in December 2011 having learnt about the Group from her friend (and Sovereign colleague) Aurora Laforga whom she knew from her Church bible studies.
Aurora was always talking about Sovereign positively so when an employment opportunity arose, Mira jumped at the chance. Previously working for a UAE trading company, she joined as receptionist in the Abu Dhabi office before moving to the Dubai operation a year later.
Following spells working in administration and further reception cover, Mira became a junior company administrator in February 2018. These days, she deals with clients on the operations side and in particular PRO services for which the Dubai office is rightly known and respected.
Usha is a Company Administrator and joined in February 2012 whilst searching for new opportunities. She knew Sovereign well as husband Staney already worked for the Group. Benefitting from Juan Leonard’s mentorship, Usha learned her craft from scratch; with ten years’ experience, today she manages close to 350 portfolios.
Originally from Mangalore, India (now Mangaluru) Usha is mother to a six year old daughter. She speaks several Indian languages and arrived in Dubai in 2004. Usha likes to see family in India when she can. The pandemic curtailed her travelling but she was able to visit in December 2021.
Usha says of Sovereign that the firm is very supportive and takes especially good care of their staff. She says that any issues arising are dealt with openly and sympathetically. This is true for management at all levels and, she feels, the wider Group as a whole
Mira adds that at Sovereign management ensures that there is no discrimination and thus a truly friendly working environment is maintained throughout the entire staff, regardless of seniority levels.
Away from work and when family duties allow, both Usha and Mira enjoy spending time in the kitchen – but with different objectives!
Usha enjoys preparing a wide range of delicious Indian food – and she says her skills have improved even more during the pandemic. She is also a keen gardener and is very proud of the organic vegetable crop growing in her balcony garden.
Mira admits to prefer baking, rather than cooking in general. Her cheesecake has become legendary in the office.
Both ladies were keen to stress how positively they felt about Sovereign. They are clearly both passionate about their roles and, as importantly, their place in the wider Sovereign Dubai family.
Usha highlighted the camaraderie and great sense of humour found throughout the office, Mira agreed, adding that “Aurora was right all those years ago”.
It is a real pleasure chatting to these ladies who despite coming from different backgrounds have both benefitted enormously from their ten years’ service at Sovereign. Now of course they are long serving staff members themselves and are able to share their enthusiasm and success with newer, younger staff as Dubai office goes from strength to strength. Congratulations and thank you for your first ten years – Mira and Usha! As the Chairman often remarks “more, please!”
