Most CEOs remember their first big win by the contract value. Shareena Sandbrook remembers hers by what her father said in the car afterward.
She’d just pitched her fledgling parking technology company to her local city. No track record. No proof of concept beyond her conviction. Just an idea and the nerve to ask for an entire city as her first client. They said yes – a partnership that marked the beginning of something bigger than she could have ever imagined.
Her father said to her, “There is no better feeling than this.”
She remembers his words like a compass, proof that someone believed in her before the world did. For Shareena, it was not just the win. It was the realisation that her idea had been trusted, and that it could create meaningful change. She’s been chasing that feeling ever since.
As CEO and Co-Founder of Frogparking, Shareena has built a career on steady growth and consistent momentum. Her work has taken her from local city projects to large-scale wins like Nike’s global headquarters and the Southern Hemisphere’s largest shopping mall. She’s also earned unanimous support in council presentations because she’s prepared, clear on her vision, and committed to delivering results.
But ask her what matters most about these victories, and she won’t talk about revenue or market share. She’ll talk about the confidence it builds in her team, the belief it creates in what seemed impossible yesterday, and the life it has allowed her to build for her two teenage daughters.
She Was Born Ready
Every leader has a beginning. Shareena’s started long before her professional career.
“I grew up in an entrepreneurial family where possibility was always encouraged and ambition was never questioned,” she explains. Her father treated confidence not as something to be earned later, but as something to be nurtured early. He taught her to see challenges as opportunities, to think independently, and to take risks even when the outcome was uncertain.
Her mother balanced that with a different but equally important lesson, resilience, perspective, and the idea that drive without integrity is just ambition without meaning. She showed Shareena that empathy matters as much as execution, and that leadership isn’t just about winning, it’s about how you show up.
Together, her parents created an environment in which speaking up was normal, and unfamiliar territory was seen as interesting rather than intimidating. Those early experiences gave Shareena a deep sense of self-belief and a willingness to trust her own judgement.
Today, that same confidence underpins her leadership style. She takes calculated risks, challenges convention, and creates space for others to grow and believe in themselves too. For Shareena, the lessons she learned early on continue to guide how she leads, builds, and inspires.
The Part Nobody Warns You About
Confidence doesn’t protect you from the hardest parts of leadership. For Shareena, one of the toughest challenges was balancing ambition with motherhood.
Both of her daughters were infants when Frogparking began demanding everything from her. “Those early years were filled with tension, guilt, and the constant pull between my responsibilities as a mother and my drive as an entrepreneur,” she says.
She remembers standing in airports with her babies in her arms as they cried, the moment they were torn from her grasp, and the weight of walking away. She felt the ache of knowing she had to get on the plane anyway because the meetings, deals, and opportunities were essential to keeping the dream alive.
It’s a memory that has never faded. The crying. The guilt. And the quiet realisation that she was learning how to carry two worlds at once.
The cultural script is brutal about this. It asks you to choose between career or motherhood, ambition or presence. Shareena refused to accept that choice.
It wasn’t an instant shift. It required sitting with guilt, pushing back against assumptions that felt embedded in her identity, and eventually realising something important, motherhood and ambition aren’t at war. The perspective, resilience, and love she gained from raising her daughters made her stronger, more empathetic, and more grounded.
“Sometimes, the moments that feel the hardest are also the ones that teach the deepest lessons about courage, purpose, and love,” she adds.
Today, she believes the two roles can coexist, and that each one makes the other better.
The New Definition of Success
Shareena spent more than half of 2025 travelling, meetings, deals, flights, and hotels. In the process, she learned something simple but profound, movement is not the same as progress.
“This is just movement,” she says. “Real success needs focus, intention, and clarity about what you’re building and why.”
In 2026, success for her means growing Frogparking’s USA presence with precision. Ambitious, yes, but also flexible. She wants to keep learning as she goes and adapting when the plan meets reality.
Equally, success is about the people around her. She wants to inspire her team, nurture their potential, and create conditions where extraordinary work happens because people believe in what they’re building.
And it also means living beyond work, spending meaningful time with her daughters that isn’t squeezed between calls, enjoying mornings with the horses and dogs who keep her grounded, and staying connected to the people who matter most.
“In 2026, success for me is no longer defined solely by milestones or numbers,” she says. “It’s the harmony of achieving, inspiring, and living fully, showing that we can push boundaries, lead boldly, and still stay connected to what truly matters.”
For Shareena, the idea that you have to choose is a myth. You don’t have to sacrifice yourself to be successful. That’s not ambition, that’s just poor design.
Authenticity Over Conformity
Women get a lot of advice about leadership. Much of it boils down to shrinking yourself, adapting to environments, and making yourself fit.
Shareena has a different outlook. Leadership, to her, is not about making yourself smaller so others feel comfortable. It’s about showing up as you are, with full conviction, full voice, and full perspective.
And this isn’t gendered, she says. “I don’t see this as a male versus female issue; it’s a human one.”
Authenticity works because people can sense it. They follow leaders who stand by their values and aren’t afraid to act on them. Conforming might feel easier in the moment, but in the long term it kills your impact, silences your voice, and strips away what makes you effective.
“Leadership is about influence, trust, and connection,” she explains, “and those qualities are strongest when they come from a place of honesty and self-belief.”
Being yourself isn’t a feel-good strategy. It’s the only strategy that builds leadership that lasts.
The Next Chapter
Shareena is focused on helping build a billion-dollar company because she believes scale can create real, lasting impact for her team, her industry, and the communities Frogparking serves.
She wants to push innovation, take smart risks, and create a legacy of leadership, resilience, and ambition that inspires others to dream bigger.
At the same time, she is committed to thriving personally, living fully, nurturing relationships, and showing up as a mother, partner, friend, and human who values presence and connection. She wants to savour the small moments with her daughters, spend time with loved ones, and immerse herself in life beyond work.
“For me, this next chapter is about proving that it is possible to dream without compromise,” she says. “To lead boldly, achieve ambitiously, and live richly. I aspire to a life where professional success and personal fulfilment coexist.”
Her Legacy
Strip away CEO and Co-Founder, and what’s left is a woman deeply grounded in her relationships. Shareena is a mother to two teenage daughters, a sister, a daughter, a partner, an aunty, and a friend. She values connections by love and choice, not just by blood. These roles shape who she is and how she leads.
These relationships have taught her patience, courage, empathy, and how to lead with strength without losing compassion. Everything she builds professionally is influenced by the example she wants to set for the people she loves.
She’s also an animal lover, drawn to the responsibility of caring for creatures who can’t advocate for themselves. She’s a relationship builder who gets energy from genuine connection. Shareena believes big wins never happen alone, they happen through collaboration, trust, and a shared belief in the mission.
Her message for International Women’s Day 2026 reflects all of it: believe in yourself, embrace ambition, and trust that you can build the life you want without surrendering pieces of yourself.
The choice between career, family, and passion is false. You can handle all of it on your own terms.
“Confidence and courage are not reserved for the select few,” she says. “They can be nurtured, cultivated, and expressed in every aspect of life. Go after what you want. Make mistakes. Celebrate wins without apology. Find people who lift you up. Help others along the way.”
Leadership is about showing up authentically, using your strengths, learning from failures, and taking risks. Her journey, the challenges, the victories, the long days away from family, and the moments of triumph, proves you can dream big, work hard, create impact, and stay true to who you are.
“If my story inspires even one woman to be fierce, unstoppable, and unapologetically herself, then every challenge I’ve faced, every risk I’ve taken, and every milestone I’ve achieved will have been worth it.”
