Sandy Shindleman was presented with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal a number of months ago by Conservative Member of Parliament for Tuxedo South Joyce Bateman.

Mr. Shindleman is a distinguished entrepreneur, and a recognized expert in the commercial and investment real estate industry.He is President of Shindico Realty, a senior instructor for the CCIM Institute, and chair of the CCIM Foundation. 

As Bateman said in presenting the honour to Mr Shindleman at a reception at Piazza DeNardi,   "Mr. Shindleman has made outstanding contributions to his community as an entrepreneur, teacher and business leader. He currently serves as President and CEO of Shindico and is a recipient of the B’nai Brith Award of Merit. His valuable philanthropic work and tireless efforts on many boards and committees is truly inspiring."

Sandy resides in Winnipeg with his family.

In 2011, Member of the Legislature Heather Stefanson read a statement applauding Sandy  and Robert Shindleman as  recipients of the B'nai Brith Award of Merit. As Stefanson said:

"Having grown up in Portage la Prairie, Sandy was the first to venture into business as a real estate agent for home and commercial properties in Winnipeg. It was at this stage that Sandy developed his tireless work ethic and where he employed his father’s key business practice of treating people well.

"Robert joined Sandy at Shindico in 1984 after working with his father on their many enterprises that included a family farm. What makes Robert and Sandy especially deserving of this award is that they have both taken on an active role in sustainable community development. Specifically, the Shindlemans have ensured that their head office was built with energy efficiency in mind, having built their office with LEED principles. Also, among their many philanthropic initiatives, the Shindlemans have funded the Shindleman Aquatic Centre, Manitoba’s largest leisure and wave pool, in Sandy’s hometown of Portage la Prairie."

Sandy is currently the chair of the board of the Canadian Institute for the Study of Antisemitism CISA, whose founding director is  Dr. Catherine Chatterley. He and his family have sponsored CISA's annual  Shindleman lecture, which has brought to Winnipeg distinguished speakers Hana Rosenthal, President Obama's special envoy to combat anti-Semitism, and Prof Deborah Lipstadt, the Dorot Professor of Jewish history and Holocaust Studies at Emory University. CISA is an independent national academic organization committed to the scholarly study of the millennial phenomenon of Antisemitism in its classic and contemporary forms.  

At the B'nai Brith Gala event in 2011 at the Fairmont Hotel, Sandy spoke of  his father Eddie who grew up in Winnipeg and was a cattle buyer.  At age 14, Eddie moved to help his sister and brother-in-law in a grocery store business, (Greenberg’s Groceteria).  As a grocer, and cattle buyer, and businessman Eddie stressed the importance of service to his customers.

In his remarks that evening, Sandy spoke about Shindico's operating mantra of, “Succeeding by Helping Others Succeed.”

Sandy said that the best business education he got from his father about the importance of helping people was when he was 13 or 14 and was asked by his father to go out and buy the bull of a retired farmer.

Sandy had the crowd rolling in laughter when he described going out to this “80 acres of un-kept farm” to get the bull. “ I looked underneath it, and sure enough, it was a bull,” he said. In fact, “a lot of bull” he added.

Up until that time “I had been involved in bull-shipping but never in bull buying.”

On sizing up the bull, Sandy offered the farmer $420 and brought it back into town. His father had to ship the bull to the stockyard in Winnipeg and obtained $1,100 for the bull from Burns Meats, after expenses, approximately $1,000.

When his father asked Sandy what he thought of bull selling, Sandy recalled “I was thinking that I could quit school and make more than you do standing on your feet seven days a week in the store.”

But, his father then told Sandy to go back to the farmer and give him another cheque for another $500, since the farmer was a long-time customer and should be treated properly, getting “full marks” for his bull.

When Sandy gave the farmer the $500.00 cheque, the farmer endorsed it to go toward purchasing food from Greenberg’s Groceteria. When Sandy gave the check to his father Eddy, Eddy tore it up, with the point being that he would pay back the farmer and his family in groceries. Eddie was able to feed the farmer for months, teaching Sandy the importance of always treating the customer with gratitude and respect.

As Sandy said, he had learned from that that. “When we make sure our customers succeed, we succeed.”

Sandy was also a co-Chair of the B’nai Brith event honouring Ida Albo, with the 2012 B'nai Brith Award of Merit at the Fort Garry Hotel.