Ajay Patel

Ajay Patel is Chairman of Gujarat State Co-operative Bank and Ahmedabad District Co-Operative Bank (ADC Bank). Patel is also involved in sports associations, primarily as president of Gujarat State Chess Association and vice president of the National Rifle Association. He is considered a close confidant of Amit Shah, who was also past President and Director of the ADC Bank.

Personal life
Patel was born on 9 February 1962, in Ahmedabad. Born to a humble family who owned an electrical shop, Patel completed his schooling in Divan-Ballubhai School in 1978 and did his bachelor's degree in Civil engineering from Lalbhai Dalpatbhai College of Engineering. Patel is married to Devangna Patel, and they have 3 children, namely Aneri, Anokhi and Dev.

Career
He recently was elected as President to the Gujarat Chambers of Commerce & Industry (GCCI). He is also the owner of Devraj Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd.

As a Chairman of ADC Bank, he sponsored the chess training programs in the schools of Gujarat. As a President of Gujarat State Chess Association, he launched Sardar Patel Chess College, first ever chess college in India, which is affiliated under Swarnim Gujarat Sports University.

He was elected unanimously as the chairman of the Co-operative Bank of India (COBI) New Delhi for the next five years. COBI is the apex body of multi-state urban cooperative banks, national co-operative federations, and land development banks.

Patel is currently serving and has served multiple roles in the banking and the sports industry of India as mentioned below:

Awards and honours
Patel has won recognition and appreciation awards in 2015 from the National Federation of State Co-operative Banks Limited (NAFSCOB), an apex body of state co-operative banks.

He has also been given the Appreciation Award in Sahakar Bharti 5th National Conference for his active role as Chairman of ADC Bank.

He also has been honoured with the Sahkarita Shiromani Awards for his contributions to the cooperative movement on the occasion of Kribhco's 36th Annual General Meeting.