Sandipa Padhi
Summary
Accomplished compliance and finance manager with extensive experience at Cisco Systems, excelling in financial forecasting and compliance auditing. Achieved significant cost savings through process improvements and led initiatives that identified over $10.3M in fraud. Proven ability to manage teams effectively while enhancing stakeholder collaboration and driving strategic outcomes.
Overview
9
9
years of professional experience
Work History
FINANCE MANAGER APJC
CISCO SYSTEMS
01.2025 - Current
- Managing APJC distributor theater sales, revenue forecasts, and rebate forecasts, resulting in accurate sales, shipment planning, and target setting.
- Reviewing distributor sales bookings to ensure quality and compliance.
- Approving marketing claims for distributors up to USD 900,000 for timely marketing and sponsorship activities, boosting Cisco's sales and revenue.
- Auditing Cisco’s inventory for over 40 APJC distributors, ensuring compliance with SOC and SOX guidelines, and helping in inventory management.
- Managing OPEX forecast and accruals for the distributor sales team, which includes salaries, commissions, headcount, travel, sponsorships, etc., for an annual budget of USD 3,300,000.
- Leading a team of eight analysts handling day-to-day operations related to sales bookings.
COMPLIANCE MANAGER APJ
CISCO SYSTEMS
04.2023 - 01.2025
- Spearheaded brand protection initiatives across the Asia Pacific and Japan region, safeguarding Cisco’s products and services, resulting in the identification of over 300 fraudulent resellers.
- Executed proactive and reactive compliance audits of Cisco partners and distributors, safeguarding against hardware and software fraud, resulting in the detection of infringement worth USD 10.3 million.
- Led counterfeiting audits, resulting in the removal of USD 50,000 worth of counterfeit units, thus securing client networks, and enhancing cybersecurity.
- Conducted comprehensive risk assessments for fraud prevention, implementing robust controls to mitigate potential risks, and effectively helping in sales generation.
- Cultivated strong stakeholder relationships through collaboration with Channel Finance and Legal leaders, driving strategic and cohesive efforts across departments.
- Delivered regular training and awareness sessions to internal sales teams, customers, and partners, promoting a culture of compliance and vigilance.
- Negotiated terms of remediation actions with partners and distributors, disciplinary measures to ensure accountability and resolution, resulting in the termination of over 60 resellers, and contributing 15% to the team’s overall collections by imposing cash settlements.
TEAM LEAD
CISCO SYSTEMS
10.2021 - 04.2023
- Led a global team of 11 analysts across Asia, Europe, and the Americas, delivering successful project outcomes in fraud prevention and compliance.
- Strategically managed an annual budget of USD 220,000, optimizing resource allocation, and enhancing the efficiency of global operations for the contractual employees.
- Collaborated with IT to develop a Salesforce case management tool, streamlining case tracking and reporting.
- Created detailed reports and Tableau dashboards for leadership, enhancing decision-making through data-driven insights.
- Implemented process improvements that saved the team over 950 hours annually, significantly boosting efficiency.
- Developed a self-learning onboarding guide, reducing 30-40 trainer hours per new hire, and ensuring faster integration of new team members.
- Maintained and updated the Brand Protection guidebook, standardizing processes through comprehensive flowcharts and workflows.
BUSINESS ANALYST
CISCO SYSTEMS
07.2020 - 10.2021
- Performed grey market monitoring of Cisco products
- Investigated anti-counterfeiting activities and tested the counterfeit products.
- Along with two other team members developed an interim case -management tool for better monitoring of team’s cases.
- Worked with the IT team in developing a Salesforce case management application, and prepared multiple pieces of training for the broader team on how to use Salesforce, and prepared Tableau charts for dashboarding purposes.
STAFF 3 – INTERNAL AUDIT
EY GDS
09.2019 - 01.2020
- Performed SOX testing on various controls for non-financial clients, to identify engagement related risks.
COMPLIANCE ANALYST – INDEPENDENCE AUDIT
DELOITTE USI
07.2017 - 09.2019
- Conducted compliance audits, prepared SEC and PCAOB reports, identified conflicts of interest, and supported fraud investigations, including internal leaks and internal trading cases.
ASSOCIATE ANALYST – CONSUMER PACKAGING GOODS
GLOBALDATA PLC
11.2015 - 07.2017
- Performed secondary Research which included collection of raw & secondary data in the food & beverage market.
Education
PGDM - Finance & Marketing
Vignana Jyothi Institute of Management
01-2015
Skills
- Leadership & Team Management
- Financial forecasting
- Budget planning & Management
- Compliance auditing
- Inventory management
- Project management
- Stakeholder collaboration
- Process improvement
- Regulatory compliance
- Internal audit
- Intellectual Property Rights
- Tableau Dashboarding
- Cisco Certified Interviewer
Accomplishments
- 2024-2025: Recognised for successfully collaborating with various Compliance teams within Cisco to integrate audits under a unified framework. This initiative significantly enhanced the organization's ability to assess and mitigate risks across multiple departments.
- 2020 – 2023: Received multiple awards for consistently delivering high-quality work and meeting tight deadlines, which contributed to a notable increase in team efficiency and productivity.
Affiliations
- Himalayan hiking
- Yoga
- Hand embroidery
- Knitting (learning)
Key Achievements
• Successfully led multi-territory audits and busting the fraud schemes by preventing and detecting frauds worth USD 10.3 Million.
• Independently audited a Singaporean reseller, which led to a litigation against Cisco. Collaborated with external counsel for case presentation, resulting in a favorable outcome and damages awarded by the Singapore High Court.
• Took over the team of 11 analyst experiencing high attrition and successfully stabilized the team within 14 months which led to better resource management.
• Developed the Salesforce case management tool to record all cases and their details, and automated email collaboration within the tool, ensuring all case-related information is centralized in one place.
Timeline
FINANCE MANAGER APJC
CISCO SYSTEMS
01.2025 - Current
COMPLIANCE MANAGER APJ
CISCO SYSTEMS
04.2023 - 01.2025
TEAM LEAD
CISCO SYSTEMS
10.2021 - 04.2023
BUSINESS ANALYST
CISCO SYSTEMS
07.2020 - 10.2021
STAFF 3 – INTERNAL AUDIT
EY GDS
09.2019 - 01.2020
COMPLIANCE ANALYST – INDEPENDENCE AUDIT
DELOITTE USI
07.2017 - 09.2019
ASSOCIATE ANALYST – CONSUMER PACKAGING GOODS
GLOBALDATA PLC
11.2015 - 07.2017
PGDM - Finance & Marketing
Vignana Jyothi Institute of Management
Similar Profiles
SHADEN ELTANAHYSHADEN ELTANAHY
Customer Project Manager at Cisco SystemsCustomer Project Manager at Cisco Systems
LEE DANIELLOLEE DANIELLO
Technical Consulting Engineer at Cisco SystemsTechnical Consulting Engineer at Cisco Systems
Jarrod McNeilJarrod McNeil
Customer Success Engineer at Cisco SystemsCustomer Success Engineer at Cisco Systems