LONDON, DECEMBER 28, 2002
PTI

Mayank Patel, an NRI who is running a foreign exchange firm here, has been named Entrepreneur of the Year in a British Telecom-sponsored leadership and diversity scheme, recognising his achievements in different fields including as a novelist and footballer.
The foreign exchange firm, Currencies Direct, started by 35-year old Patel six years ago is one of the fastest growing companies in Britain.

Started in 1996 with four people and a turnover of 12 million pounds, it now has a staff of 40, a turnover of 350 million pounds and was recently nominated for inclusion in a Treasury-backed Inner City 100 Index.
Currencies Direct aims to help people buying properties or cars abroad - or even emigrating - manage their foreign financial transactions. And it is all done over the internet or phone.

Born in Lusaka in Zambia, Patel came to Britain following his elder brother, Sonal, in pursuit of further education.
After a spell at Birmingham University studying business administration, he trained as a futures and options broker with David Coakley and then Linnco Europe but soon had a yearning to do his own thing.

Teaming up with a former colleague from Coakley, they each pooled 4,500 pounds to sign a lease on a tiny office in Paddington Street, central London, where they looked after foreign exchange transactions for small and medium-sized enterprises.

"It was a real struggle, we could not afford any staff so we did everything from our own office cleaning to the trading," Patel says in an interview published in <i>the Guardian</i> daily on Saturday.