Get the lowdown on Christopher Sands, Division Director of Pacific Lighthouse Partners, the San Francisco based FinTech company that bridges the gap between traditional banking and financial technology.

We caught up with Chris Sands in Bangkok during his 1-year globetrotting adventure. His journey to founding the Silicon Valley-based FinTech company Pacific Lighthouse Partners started when he moved to SF for business school in Golden Gate University, where he was recruited by a recruiter to work in a British recruitment conglomerate, Michael Page™ in 2013.

It was then that he witnessed the ‘Mobile Revolution’ in Silicon Valley when mobile apps transcended desktop sites. As IT/Finance Recruitment Consultant in Michael Page, Chris set foot in the entrepreneurial world of Financial Technology by launching a deployment platform for mobile apps.

While the company was dealing with recruiting personnel for a wide variety of departments, Chris found himself specialising in IT/Finance recruitment. This led him to discovering the hidden niche demand of a FinTech company that helps provide financial inclusion, allowing people to do banking seamlessly.

With Jeff Bezos of Amazon as role model, Chris and his former colleague founded Pacific Lighthouse Partners in 2015. This company helps financial businesses sort out compliances and legal placements, as well as specialising in conducting skill specific searches for their clients and helping relocate people to Silicon Valley today.

1. Android or iOs?
   iOs.
2. Bitcoin or Ethereum?
   Bitcoin
3. Gmail or Outlook?
   Gmail
4. Best gift you’ve ever received?
   First car when I was 16. a Toyota Acura Integra GSR 2001, black on black.
5. Best gift you’ve ever given?
   It was my girlfriend’s 29th birthday. I asked 29 of her friends to write personal letters that shared experience with her.
6. What is the one book you’ve read over and over again? 
   7 Habits for Highly Effective People by Steven R. Covey.
7. What is the one book you’d recommend all fresh graduates to read?
   7 Habits for Highly Effective People by Steven R. Covey.
8. What is the best thing that happened this year?
   Taking a Year long trip across the world.
9. What’s your favorite country to visit?
   Spain
10. Last country you visited? 
    Vietnam
11. What country would you like to visit? 
    Israel
12. What is something you always travel with? 
    I carry a soccer ball with me to travel. I’d deflate it and put it in my bag so I can go to a park with it.
13. What’s the world’s most pressing issue today? 
    Ethics about artificial intelligence.
14. What’s your go-to news source?
    MSN Finance.
15. What’s your go-to social media channel?
    Linkedin.
16. What’s the last thing you do before leaving the office? 
    Clean out my inbox.
17. What advice  would you give to someone who wants to be in the FinTech? 
    Understand your own self branding within Fintech
18. If you were not the partner at Pacific Lighthouse, what would you be doing? 
    Working in-house at an early stage tech company.
19. Who is your role model?
    Jeff Bezos of Amazon
20. What did you study at university? 
    I studied Sound Design & Video Production in Santa Barbara City College, California
21. What is your valuable skill? 
    Relating to people.
22. What is one skill you wish you had? 
    Ability to speak multiple languages
23. What is the best advice you’ve ever received? 
    Don’t focus on wealth, focus on financial freedom.
24. What is the best advice you’ve ever given?
    In order to create job opportunities, you need to focus on the  80% hidden market and only 20% are advertised. Jobs that are brought on through referral. Normally vacant position is filled internally first before they advertise the role.
25. If you had one superpower, what would it be?
    Time travel to the future and invest in stock market.

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