Executive Advisor to the Chairman
Toronto lawyer Aman S. Patel is a personal adviser to the foundation’s chairman, Dr. Aditya Jha. Aman met Aditya shortly after Aman’s call to the Ontario Bar in 2002. They soon discovered that they shared a deep desire to serve the community and often debated ideas on how the upper echelons of the Indo-Canadian community could better serve the community at large.
Aman often challenged Aditya’s ideas on what could be done and which segment of the community could best be served. Aman challenged Aditya with the idea that while a “heavyweight” Indo-Canadian philanthropist was indeed a rarity, there was certainly a handful which could make the one. He further posited the idea that involvement with Canada’s First Nations and Aboriginal communities, which are very much an integral part of the Canadian fabric, would create closer ties between the communities.
Both Aman and Aditya believed in the value of education and were entrepreneurs in their own right. It was not too long before Aman helped Aditya pave the way to creating the POA Foundation. Since then, Aman seeded the idea of Project Beyshick and continues to consult for Aditya on a variety of philanthropic and other matters.