Sundeep Bansal

CFO

Unique Group

Engineering Services

Sharjah, Ash Shariqah

⭐ Leaders at a Glance

Leaders at a Glance

A young Chartered Accountant from India, Sundeep, found a new opportunity in Dubai that a more mature market could never have offered. From his early days of senior finance roles across multiple industries, he has built a career centered on business growth and transformation. Today, as Chief Financial Officer of Unique Group, he partners with the Board and executive leadership to drive strategy, optimise capital, strengthen governance, and deliver operational excellence across the business globally.

Name: Sundeep Bansal
Designation: CFO
Company: Unique Group
Industry: Engineering Services
Country: Sharjah, Ash Shariqah

Sundeep Bansal -Most Visionary CFOs from Asia 2026

Three things were changing at once when Sundeep Bansal arrived in Dubai in 2002. The city was building itself into a global business hub. Capital markets were moving from traditional bank debt into sophisticated, multi-layered investment structures. The CFO role itself was shifting away from accounting toward something far broader. Sundeep arrived in the middle of all three.

Dubai in 2002 represented a significant moment in the evolution of its private sector, with many founder-led businesses reaching the point where entrepreneurial instinct alone was no longer sufficient, and scalable systems, governance, and professional leadership became essential for the next phase of growth. A young Chartered Accountant from India, Sundeep, found in that environment something that a more mature market could never have offered. Every role pulled him closer to strategy, capital structuring, and operational planning, building the instincts that would define his approach to finance leadership for decades to come.

From his early days in Oil & Gas pipeline inspection services to more than a decade of leadership at Fabtech International and senior finance roles across multiple industries, he has built a career centred on business growth and transformation. Today, as Chief Financial Officer of Unique Group, he partners with the Board and executive leadership to drive strategy, optimise capital, strengthen governance, and deliver operational excellence across the global business.

In a candid conversation with The Portfolio Magazine, Sundeep shares his views on leadership, capital allocation, technology, and the future of finance.

How has the CFO role evolved over the years?

When I qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2001, the CFO’s role was largely about getting the numbers right—financial reporting, compliance, controls, and ensuring the business had a solid financial foundation. Those responsibilities are still fundamental, but today the role extends far beyond finance. CFOs are expected to help shape strategy, guide investment decisions, manage risk, and work alongside the CEO and Board to drive long-term growth.

A big part of that shift has come from how businesses are funded and how quickly markets evolve. With private equity, alternative financing, and increasingly sophisticated investors, finance leaders are expected to understand not just the numbers, but the business behind them. At the same time, technology and data have given us far greater insight, allowing CFOs to move from reporting what happened yesterday to helping shape what happens next. In many ways, the role has evolved from being the guardian of financial resources to being a partner in building the business’s future.

Talking of building the future of business, the primary focus for CFO’s now is on managing capital. The biggest mistake I see is treating capital allocation as just a financial decision rather than a strategic business decision. Attractive funding doesn’t create value if the investment itself isn’t supported by sound assumptions. I always start by asking one simple question: What are we trying to achieve with this capital? The capital allocation discussions often get skewed towards how to reduce or manage the cost of capital, but in my experience, the purpose of capital is far more important. Once you’re clear on the strategic objective and the returns you expect to generate, you can determine the most appropriate funding structure, especially when multiple capital sources are available today.

At Unique Group, where we operate in industrial equipment manufacturing and services, we’re constantly balancing investment for growth with maintaining the financial flexibility to navigate changing market conditions. That means making disciplined decisions based on robust forecasting, operational performance, and a clear understanding of risk and return. Ultimately, good capital allocation isn’t about deploying as much capital as possible to drive growth – it’s about deploying the right capital into the right opportunities, at the right time.

“The question is not the cost OR availability of capital. The question is the purpose of capital.”

How did Dubai and UAE reforms shape your journey?

Moving to Dubai in 2002 became one of the career-defining decisions. Dubai and the UAE as a country have always striven to create a safe & conducive environment to attract foreign capital. Establishing the DIFC was a significant game-changer. At the time, Dubai was experiencing economic growth, enabled by ambitious entrepreneurs exploiting opportunities from capital reforms and global market tailwinds. Working alongside founder-led organisations taught me that finance wasn’t just about reporting results—it was about enabling growth, making capital work harder, and helping business owners make better decisions. Those early experiences continue to shape how I think about strategy, capital allocation, and long-term value creation today.

The UAE’s evolution has also reinforced the importance of adaptability for finance leaders. As a fast-growing nation, reforms such as the introduction of VAT and, more recently, the corporate tax and transfer pricing rules have fundamentally changed the financial landscape, requiring finance leaders to quickly develop new capabilities and strengthen governance. The current direction towards bilateral free trade agreements and DTAAs has only compounded the compliance responsibility for CFOs today. It’s a good example of how the UAE has continually challenged businesses—and finance leaders—to evolve alongside its own remarkable growth, though rather than seeing these changes as compliance exercises, I view them as an opportunity to build more resilient, globally aligned finance functions for UAE enterprises.

What opportunities excite you in finance transformation?

Technology has fascinated me since long before I started my career. Back in the late 1990s, while I was at university in India, ERP and business management systems were just emerging, and I was genuinely excited by the possibilities. In fact, had I not pursued Chartered Accountancy, I would probably have followed my cousins into engineering and technology. Looking back, I feel fortunate because my career has allowed me to combine both passions—finance and technology.

What excites me most about finance transformation today isn’t the technology itself, but what it enables. Whether it’s ERP implementations or the rapid evolution of AI, the biggest opportunities come from rethinking processes, improving data quality, and helping people work differently—not simply deploying new software. Artificial intelligence now sits at the frontier of that same question.

At Unique Group, we’re aiming to leverage AI to automate routine transaction processing, strengthen reporting, and deliver real-time business insights, allowing our finance teams to focus on strategic decision-making rather than data management & reporting. At the same time, cybersecurity and data integrity remain fundamental because every transformation is only as strong as the quality and trustworthiness of the data that underpins it.

What leadership lessons shaped your career most?

Some of my biggest leadership lessons have come not from successes but from the times when it would have been easier to agree than to ask difficult questions. As a CFO, there are occasions when the excitement around an opportunity can outweigh the underlying facts. I’ve learned that my responsibility isn’t to say “no”—it’s to ensure that decisions are grounded in robust analysis, realistic assumptions, and a clear understanding of the risks and returns. Sometimes that means slowing the conversation down so the business can make a better decision. The best outcomes come when different perspectives are welcomed and challenged constructively. I believe the CFO’s role is to bring clarity, objectivity, and discipline to those discussions—not to win the argument, but to help the organisation make better decisions. In my experience, that’s where finance creates its greatest value.

“Leadership isn’t about having all the answers; it’s about creating an environment where the right questions are asked”