Who is Akhil Patel?
August 9, 2017 9:19 am
Nick O’Connor: Akhil has professional experience in audit, central government and international banking and has worked on a range of issues from reviewing large infrastructure PPP deals to helping establish the UK’s £3 billion International Climate Fund. He has two Masters Degrees (in Finance and Public Policy) and a first degree in the Classics from Oxford. In 2013, he established Ascendant Strategy to produce research that helps investors make better investment decisions based on an understanding of the key economic and financial cycles driving markets. He is also himself a stock and property investor and so puts into practice what he researches.
During the early 1990’s Akhil witnessed the effects of economic recession first hand through his family’s struggling business. A combination of constrained credit and the loss of jobs impacted his and many other families greatly. Eventually these were overcome and they experienced rising prosperity during the boom years of the late 1990s and early 2000s. But when the Global Financial Crisis hit in 2007, the financial problems returned. Struck by the fact that the GFC seemed to him to be like the events of the early 90’s repeating themselves – but with increased severity – Akhil’s passion for studying cycles really took off.
He wanted to understand why history was repeating; why there was no general awareness of this; and what people needed to know to avoid being affected by the same issues that had impacted his family. Through his research he met future business partner and good friend Phil Anderson – author of the acclaimed financial book The Secret Life of Real Estate and Banking in 2010.