Things are finally looking up for West Brom as a seven and a half year spell under Guochuan Lai looks set to finally come to an end.
There appears to be a new man on the block as it was announced last week that Bilkul Football, who are a company owned by Shilen Patel, have agreed to buy an 87.8% stake in the Championship club.
So, with the recent news, we at Football FanCast have decided to compile a fact file on everything about Shilen Patel.
Who is Shilen Patel?
Shilen Patel is a businessman who founded, and became the CEO of, HealthAxis Group, who provides cutting-edge core administrative technology + BPaaS, BPO, staff augmentation, and consulting services based in Florida.
And, it has been claimed that Patel has additional links with MSD Holdings, who are the same investment firm that loaned the Midlands club around £27m, so it'll be interesting to see how that plays out.
Shilen Patel's age
Shilen Patel was born in June 1980, and resides in Tampa, Florida.
This makes him 43 years old.
Who is Shilen Patel's father, Doctor Kiran Patel?
Kiran C. Patel is a Zambian Indian American philanthropist, serial entrepreneur, hotelier and cardiologist.
He's achieved everything you could possibly think of in his fields so far.
Kiran started his career as a cardiologist, starting his own practice in 1985 in Florida. And, things soon started to take off as he opened 14 branches. As well as this, he transformed Well Care HMO, INC. into the 5th largest Medicaid HMO in the United States.
However, that wasn't the only company he gave a makeover, as he started up his own company and acquired two different health care plans. The amazing thing about this is he grew these companies to over 115,000 members and over $1 billion (£795 million) in revenue, which is when he decided to sell them to Anthem in April 2019.
This industry was where he completely built his fortune, and walked away from it with up to $400 million (£318 million).
Shilen Patel's West Brom takeover
Shilen Patel has completed the takeover of West Bromwich Albion for around £60 million.
Bilkul Football WBA, LLC, a company owned and run by Shilen and his father Kiran, is now the 87.8% majority shareholder of the Midlands club after acquiring Guochuan Lai's stake, which has been approved by the EFL.
An exchange and completion is expected to take place this week.
Shilen Patel's net worth
It's been reported by Birmingham Mail that Shilen Patel has a net worth just shy of £100 million. The official number stated is around $100 million (£79.5 million), which is a shadow of Kiran Patel's net worth at around $400 million (£318 million).
Patel's net worth comes from his career as an entrepreneur, investor in start-ups around Tampa, and leader in the healthcare IT sector.
He's a smart man, who knows that diversifying his portfolio can only benefit him, which can be seen with his various investments in technology, healthcare, property, finance, food, and now football. He is also a founding Director of Central Bank.
However, nothing can prepare him for the challenges of maintaining and controlling a football team, with fans to keep happy.
Shilen Patel's wife and family
Shilen Patel's wife is called Parita.
They're a bit of a power couple when it comes to business. One thing Parita does it take part in philanthropic activities with Shilen, as they both have roles as chairs of the Glazer Children’s Museum’s.
However, it isn't just the businesses and investments that occupy the pair's time, as they have three kids all under the age of 11 to care for.
Shilen Patel's businesses
As well as being the CEO of HealthAxis over in Flordia, Shilen enjoys investing in start-ups in the Tampa Bay area back home. Evidence of this is the fact that he co-founded and chairs the TiE Tampa Bay Angel Fund, which aims to back Florida startups and promote angel investing among local investors. So he's a bit of a local hero in the eyes of some.
However, the hard work doesn't stop there as Shilen also chairs the Creative Entrepreneurship Lab, which is a non-profit initiative, aiming to enhance entrepreneurial activity in the USF area. As well as being a founding director of Central Bank as previously mentioned.
Guochuan Lai's ownership at West Brom
West Bromwich Albion fans certainly won't have a hard time forgetting about Guochuan Lai's time at the Hawthornes.
The Chinese businessman was unveiled as the controlling shareholder back in 2016 after purchasing his stake for around £175 million.
But, there always seemed to be a lack of transparency during his seven and a half years at the club, as there was debt, which still stands now, as well as relegation and a lot of concern from the fan base and those within.
Interestingly, when Lai purchased the club he inherited a £3.7 million loan that the Albion holding company owed to the football club. And, due to interest mounting up due to the debt not being paid, in May 2019, the debt was £4.1 million.
Lai loved an excuse, as he told the club that restrictions on foreign investment from the Chinese government were halting his efforts to pay the £4.1million debt that was owed.
Due to all the messing around, shareholders of the Midlands club succeeded in their attempt for an independent investigation to be launched into the loan, with the club agreeing to fund the investigation.
The thing that really annoyed fans was the release of the club's accounts as it came out that Laid had taken £4.95 million of the club's money and gone and put it into another one of his firms Wisdom Smart Corporation Limited. Bear in mind that the amount owed to the club due to interest had risen to around £5 million by this time.
And, to make matters worse, it was revealed that the Chinese businessman borrowed another £2 million in September 2021 for another one of his companies.
For a club with the history of West Brom, a Premier League place is what's craved. But, under Lai, he seemed to go out of his way to make this seem like a distant dream, certainly over the past few years.