family enjoying activities in Dubai
November 12, 2021July 4, 2022 Travel

Exciting activities in Dubai for you and your family

Dubai is known as the shopping capital of the Middle East. However, its prestigious shopping malls are not the only thing that makes it a popular tourist destination. With so many activities in Dubai to choose from, there is likely to be…

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Blog Featured Image - 5 shopping destinations you cannot miss on your next trip to Dubai!
November 5, 2021June 16, 2022 Guides

5 shopping destinations you cannot miss on your next trip to Dubai!

You’ll be spoiled for choice with the endless number of malls that line Dubai’s main highway, Sheikh Zayed Road. Here are 5 shopping destinations we think you should add to your itinerary for your next Dubai shopping trip!  1. The Dubai Mall As the largest mall…

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Blog Featured Image - The best locations to maximise your tax refund with utu
November 1, 2021July 4, 2022 Shopping

The best locations to maximise your tax refund with utu!

utu upsizes your tax refund by up to 25% when you shop tax-free anywhere across 50 countries. We upsize each refund regardless of the shop or Tax Refund Operator you choose. With the launch of the utu Tax Free app, here are a few locations for you to…

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Recent Posts

  • utu Tax Free App – 5 simple steps to upsize your VAT / GST refund!
  • Popular 2022 shopping destinations in Italy that give you more on your tax refund!
  • Everything you need to know about tax-free shopping in 2022
  • utu Membership – Newest travel hack giving you Frequent Flyer Miles today and more on your VAT / GST refunds tomorrow
  • Travel Tips When Shopping Abroad

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*30% more on your tax refund amount in rewards is applicable when you sign up for an Elite tier membership.

An activation fee of €1.99 will be refunded upon your first transaction.

Asad Jumabhoy

CEO & Co-Founder

Asad Jumabhoy is utu’s co-founder and CEO. Asad sits at the helm of strategy that steers utu’s development of new and disruptive technologies in the tax-free shopping market. Asad is a pioneer and major industry player who has shaped and grown the VAT refund sector as we know it today. He transformed both Global Blue and Premier Tax Free (now Planet) into industry leaders through strong management and business acumen. His drive to improve the tax-free shopping arena through innovation is combined with in-depth industry.

Ameer Jumabhoy

Co-Founder

Ameer Jumabhoy is a co-founder of utu. As well as guiding the company’s overall direction, he leads utu’s consumer technology transformation and community team. This includes the development of customer interfaces on mobile platforms, website, WeChat as well as customer growth. Ameer holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a BA in Political Science from Rice University.

Depending on the Frequent Flyer Programme and utu Membership tier selected.

Frequent Flyer miles may take 3-7 days to be credited, depending on Frequent Flyer Programme selected.

Alessandro Ciambrone

Senior Vice President – Tax Free

Alessandro has over 28 years of experience working for multinational companies in Finance and Operations, developing innovative financial services. His experience stems from him working for companies such as Lease Plan, De Lage Landen Leasing, ING Car Lease and BMC Software.

Since joining utu at the end of 2018, Alessandro strives to innovate the tax refund service in favor of travellers by developing alternative consumer-centric tax-free schemes and refund channels.

LeeLing Teo

Head Of PMO

Lee Ling is the head of PMO at utu. She is a certified Agile Project Manager with over 17 years of experience in the software development domain. She serves as a subject matter expert in Agile and Scrum methodology across the technology team and organization.
Lee Ling started her career in the IT industry in 2002 and has since held different roles in the Telecommunication and Fintech domains. Lee Ling is motivated by her team’s dedication to complete tasks and ensures that the user journey for customers is seamless. In her free time, Lee Ling likes to do yoga every day.

Barbara Calligola

Retail Excellence

Barbara is responsible for utu’s Retail Excellence in Italy.
Barbara joined utu in 2019 as a Sales Support Executive for the Italian market. Barbara has vast experience in events organisation, customer support, and human resource management from the fashion industry. Currently, Barbara ensures the efficient provision of sales and services to partners and customers, ensuring smooth operations and post-sales service, owing to her in-depth knowledge of utu’s products.

Barbara enjoys travelling and engaging in bricolage in her spare time.

Sugumaran Devaraja

Regional Director, Middle East & North Africa

Sugu is Regional Director for Middle East and North Africa for utu. He is based in Dubai, UAE and has close to a decade of experience as a senior economic and trade official. His entrepreneurial nature has allowed him to successfully advise companies on market entry and penetration, and business transformation, and has a unique bird’s eye perspective across sectors like Food & Beverage, Transport & Logistics, ICT, Finance, and Infrastructure.

He has cultivated and maintains deep networks in MENA and Singapore, and has long-standing relationships with key personnel and high net-worth individuals from both the private and public sectors.

Sugu is passionate about solving social issues through entrepreneurial and creative means and is always on the hunt for like-minded people to mobilize change. He is the co-founder of ‘Straits Restaurant’ – a Singaporean/Malaysian food venture in UAE and enjoys watching sports, making a good cup of chai for his friends and learning new recipes in his free time.

Gali Mary Sinduja

Senior Quality Assurance Engineer

Mary is the Senior QA Engineer of utu. Her role is to test and identify bugs present in the development of the application. She is always eager to gain knowledge on new technologies which can improve the applications we use and therefore make our products more user-friendly.
The help and support from her colleagues drive Mary to improve her personal and professional growth. She ensures that all the improvements she makes to a product will give confidence to customers and can create a loyal customer base. In her free time, Mary likes watching movies and surfing the web.

Sanjay Chinchwade

Chief Marketing Officer

Sanjay Chinchwade is utu’s Chief Marketing Officer, responsible for utu’s global positioning and growth through effective targeted customer acquisition and effective reach. Sanjay heads development of multi-channel marketing and communications strategies for utu, as well as leading strategic partnerships with airlines, hotels, financial institutions, card schemes, and key merchants. He brings over 25 years of work experience from global companies in Asia, including leadership roles at Ogilvy and American Express, where he led teams developing new business partnerships and heading premium products and card services in Asia.

Sridhar Vorla

Head Of Cloud Infrastructure & Services

Sridhar Vorla is the Head of Cloud Infrastructure & Services at utu. Proficient in designing & maintenance of secure, scalable & highly available Architectures on the Cloud, Sridhar is pivotal in maintaining existing and enterprise-wide IT infrastructure, anticipating future requirements, and providing strategic inputs for new IT / Cloud systems.
Sridhar started his career in the IT industry in 2005 and has since held different roles in the Healthcare, Telecommunication and E-Commerce domains. Beyond utu, Sridhar likes to spend time with family and listen to music.

Ann Margareth Angeles

Lifecycle & Community Manager

Ann started her career in 2006, and has vast experience in the hospitality industry, primarily in luxury 5-star hotels in Singapore, with an emphasis on guest-facing services and operations. In her current role, Ann connects the partner and customer communities of utu. Her keen interest in technology enables her to better understand the needs and expectations of our customers. This ensures utu’s customer journey is as seamless as possible.

In her free time, Ann enjoys riding bicycles and exploring good food in and around Singapore.

Nicky Surapaitoon

Country Manager – Thailand

Nicky is the Country Manager for utu’s Thailand office. Nicky has vast experience working with different companies throughout her career. She has worked as country manager for a peer-to-peer payment fintech company. She has also co-headed and co-founded other companies. Nicky has also managed her own chain of brick-and-mortar retail pharmacies.

Nicky is passionate about people and the driving forces that impact daily life. She hopes to be able to use technology to improve the efficiency of what individuals are not aware of and improve their experience. In her free time, Nicky enjoys travelling and cooking for her family and friends.

utu Employees - Chief Technology Officer - Vidur Verma

Vidur Verma

Chief Technology Officer

Vidur has over 30 years of experience managing teams in a multitude of large multinational technology companies design, develop, integrate and go-to-market with products in wireless telecommunications, payment systems, and healthcare. The benefit of an engineering background and military test pilot experience has led to a razor-sharp focus on excellence in Program Management, Technology Strategy and Delivery, and Business Process & Operations Re-Engineering at companies such as T-Mobile, Kaiser Permanente, Boeing, Accenture, and Sutter Health.

Since joining utu in early 2020, Vidur has strived to transform the structure, procedures and processes in the technology organization in order to become an enabler of the business needs of utu, while identifying and integrating innovative FinTech solutions into our product offerings.

utu Employees - Chief Technology Officer - Vidur Verma

Alice Chuah

Senior Finance Manager

Alice is the Senior Finance Manager of utu. She is equipped with over 21 years of Finance and Management experience from various industries. She joined utu in 2016, leading Finance and Admin functions for utu headquartered in Singapore, with offices in Luxembourg, Italy, France, Austria, Korea, Thailand and India.
Alice constantly strives for self-development and approaches everything with a positive attitude. She also ensures that her individual contributions would impact the customer experience. In her free time, Alice enjoys travelling, sports and cooking.

utu Employees - Sales Accounts - Ester Brescia

Ester Brescia

Sales Accounts

Ester has worked for 9 years in the tourism industry, with extensive expertise in developing partnerships in the hospitality sector. Dealing with prospective clients both in UK and Italy, Ester has helped grow the travel industry through a wide range of established partnerships. Being very results-oriented, Ester perseveres until her clients are fully satisfied with her work.

To complement her professional skillset, Ester enjoys reading to learn new languages and cultures. Beyond the office, Ester regularly participates in yoga to ensure she’s able to meet her shopping goals.

utu Employees - Sales Accounts - Ester Brescia

utu Employees - Senior Digital Designer - Joshua Khoo

Joshua Khoo

Senior Digital Designer

Joshua is the Jedi Master of design at utu, based in our Singapore headquarters. On a deep foundation of communication and media studies, he has built a broad design repertoire from advertising to architecture. Day-to-day, Joshua leads the user experience (UX) and interface (UI) design for the utu Tax Free app… and creates many other pretty things.

Besides art and design, Joshua’s other passion is technology. His interest is by no means limited to Apple products; a fact he needs to constantly remind his Android rival, Ameer.

 

utu Employees - Senior Digital Designer - Joshua Khoo