Regular readers know already that Sovereign Mauritius is one of the fastest growing offices in the Group. Nevertheless, it may come as a surprise to learn that over 70 staff are now employed on island. We caught up with local rising star Doorgesh Burumdayal who despite only being at Sovereign for a little over a year is already making his mark
Mauritian-born Doorgesh graduated from the University of Mauritius with a BSc (Hons) Banking and Finance joining Sovereign in February 2021 as an investment administrator. Since then he has made impressive progress and was recently promoted to Team Leader. He works closely with the Gibraltar team and gratefully name checks Jessie Frost, Joseph Pascual and Fiona Bayne for their guidance and invaluable mentorship since his first day.
Passionate about all aspects of investment, Doorgesh’s first role involved back office work and included “rebalancing” portfolios. This takes account of changes needed in order to pay fees and so on. Portfolios are regularly reviewed in conjunction with IFAs
After just three months, Doorgesh started to train other members of staff. He gratefully repaid the confidence demonstrated by his Mauritius-based senior colleagues, especially Operations Director Reshma Ramyead and Manager Kavish Seeruttun to whom he owes a great deal.
As team leader, Doorgesh works on the dealing desk reviewing instructions from IFAs ensuring that transactions are completed accurately and efficiently. This is vital when running a pensions administration business; its importance cannot be overstated. Daily managing a wide range of queries, Doorgesh continues to make suggestions aimed at improving output quality. Over time, the dealing team grew and again he provided the training.
There to answer questions as Team Leader, Doorgesh has nine staff reporting to him divided into three sub teams. He selects champions in each one when trying something new. He thinks it important that those people change depending on the task involved.
Doorgesh says that Sovereign allows him to grow as a person, particularly developing his talent as a good listener. He is applying leadership skills for the first time but clearly thrives on the responsibility.
We asked Doorgesh why he was attracted to Sovereign in the first place. As a fresh graduate, initially he felt it quite tough to enter the job market. After learning the basics at a couple of local companies, he answered a job advert on Sovereign’s website. He was amazed to discover the worldwide network of offices. Moreover, the range of services was impressive – much of it provided locally in Mauritius
After a process involving two interviews, he was in. He says that Sovereign’s culture provides exciting growth prospects for its staff as well as diverse social experiences. Sovereign value their staff, recognising effort and he was made to feel welcome when he joined the company. He also reminds us that the Group goes out of its way to protect the environment.
Covid meant that Doorgesh had to work from home after just six weeks with Sovereign but took on the new challenge with confidence and continued to meet the expectations that his superiors had of him.
Many people are surprised to discover that Mauritius is in fact a very large island. Doorgesh and his family live further from the office than most in the office being some 40km away on the central plateau. This English, French, Creole and Hindi speaker is now learning Spanish that he can practise on his Gibraltar colleagues. Doorgesh is passionate about travel and is a keen gamer (especially FIFA 22!)
Whilst enjoying a game of 5 a side with his colleagues, Doorgesh loves his well-deserved home time “on the plateau”. Considering his progress is less than 18 months, we are super excited to see where his career takes him. Hugely personable and very likeable, we wish him well.
