Nilesh Patel is 30 years old and is a director at The Prideview Group, an established commercial property investment company in London. He is a Chartered Accountant by profession, having trained at KPMG in London and graduated before that with a First class degree in Economics & Politics with Spanish from Warwick University. Outside of work he spends his time with his family. He is also a keen football player and fan of the Indian cricket team.
1) What is your current position?
Director at The Prideview Group, a commercial property investment consultancy based in Stanmore, North London.
2) What are your proudest achievements?
Academically, being a qualified Chartered Accountant and fluent in Spanish are my highlights. Socially, I’m proud to have set up numerous charity sports tournaments over the last 10 years, combining my passion for sports with my desire to help underprivileged children in India and raising over £50,000 to date. The next one, The Prideview Cricketers’ Cup, is on July 18th. Career-wise, I have striven to bring Prideview into the 21st century by turning our business website into a global reference point for UK commercial property dealing.
3) What inspires you?
As a FT Weekend subscriber I find it fascinating to read business news regardless of sector or geography – I believe appreciating the people, dynamics & decisions behind companies big and small is essential for generating ideas that I can apply to my own business and career.
4) What has been the biggest obstacle in your career?
I began my career in the depth of the ‘Credit Crunch’ in 2008. It defined my time at KPMG in London and my early years at Prideview. Those days have ingrained on me the importance of sustainable income, quality service and cost-control, and I’ve helped build a foundation that’s enabled us to capitalise on today’s rosier times.
5) Who has been the biggest influence on your career to date?
Ever since I can remember my Dad has been a hard-working entrepreneur and his dedication is something I have always applied to whatever task in front of me. Despite losing his eye-sight several years ago, he has powered on, and working more closely with him since then has taught me, simply, that the ‘old-school’ ways of doing business will never go out of fashion.
6) What is the best aspect about your current role?
Working in my own business in the lovely surroundings of Stanmore means I have more flexibility than most, which I use to spend as much time as possible with my two young boys.
7) And the worst?
Being in a small, family consultancy business means our physical expansion is limited. With the phone ringing non-stop, we sometimes have to turn down business where we can’t guarantee our usual levels of service.
8) What are your long term goals?
I would like to overcome this barrier by building and training a larger team of property professionals that can share our expertise more widely. We are currently recruiting for a full-time office manager and hope to grow from there.
9) If you were Prime Minister, what one aspect would you change?
I would overhaul the mess of a taxation system we currently have, which has had law after law piled on top of it for hundreds of years. A simpler system would benefit business, our economy and our social services in the long run.
10) If you were marooned on a desert island, which historical figure would you like to spend your time with and why?
I read Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography when I was younger, and if anyone could survive and flourish in that situation it is him. It is a shame he left us so early as there is so much more the world could have learnt and can still learn from him.
