Meenal Patel
After graduating from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) with a BSc (Hons) in Economics, Meenal went on to spend 12 years working in financial markets, most recently as the EMEA Head of FX, Commodities & Rates at J.P. Morgan Private Bank. It was in 2019 when Meenal made the decision to begin a new journey focused on social impact. After some work volunteering on-the-ground in East Africa, Meenal returned to the UK to complete a 1-year MSc in Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at LSE. Meenal is motivated to use her skills to help underserved groups. As such, in May 2020, she founded Avasara Foundation: a small, volunteer-run charity with a mission of empowering vulnerable people through essential support initiatives. She continues to lead the charity’s work. Alongside this, after gaining experience as the Head of Growth at an early-stage start-up focused on social mobility and inclusion, Meenal went on to spend 14 months at Octopus Ventures as the Head of Corporate Development. In this role, she owned the strategic development of the business, helping to identify and launch new opportunities for the fund. Meenal has now returned to J.P. Morgan to lead the development of the Sustainable Investing business for the International Private Bank.