Sands is Group Chief Executive of British banking and financial-services company Standard Chartered. He is also lead non-executive director of the board of the UK Government Department of Health. Sands joined Standard Chartered as Group Finance Director in 2002 and was appointed Chief Executive Officer four years later.

Previously, he spent 14 years with consultancy McKinsey & Co, where he became a partner in 1996 and a director in 2000. Prior to that, he worked for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Sands serves on the boards of the International Institute of Finance and the International Monetary Conference. He is a member of the International Advisory Board to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and since 2010 has co-chaired the UK-India CEO Forum