SBT’s Chan Patel Receives AAHOA Community Service Award

April 12, 2023

Chan Patel, the founder and CEO of State Bank of Texas (SBT), was recently awarded the Cecil B. Day Community Service Award at AAHOACON 2023.

AAHOACON 2023, the national convention and trade show of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center April 11 – 14, 2023. With more than 18,500 hoteliers, AAHOA is the largest organization of Asian American hotel and motel owners in the United States. In fact, AAHOA members own 60% of all hotels in the nation.

Named in honor of Cecil B. Day, the founder of Days Inn known for his commitment to community service, the AAHOA Community Service Award recognizes someone who has demonstrated a strong commitment to serving his or her community. Patel was chosen by an independent award selection committee, and he was acknowledged and celebrated on stage during the final day of AAHOACON 2023.

“Chan is incredibly deserving of the Cecil B. Day Award from the AAHOA,” said Sushil Patel, president of SBT. “In addition to helping the hotelier community, he has helped his local community for decades through countless generous donations.”

Chan Patel founded SBT on Black Monday, the day the stock market crashed on October 19, 1987. But overcoming those odds, SBT has become America’s leading hospitality lender and one of the nation’s most successful community banks.

Patel is an AAHOA lifetime member and is known throughout North Texas and the hotel industry for his philanthropic efforts, particularly in health and education. This includes a historic $2 million gift he and his wife Surekha Patel bestowed to the cardiovascular unit at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Irving, Texas. It was the largest gift given by any donor in the history of the Baylor Scott & White Irving Foundation to date.

AAHOA was established in 1989 and is the largest hotel owners association in the nation. The 19,500+ AAHOA members own almost one in every two hotels in the United States. With billions of dollars in property assets and hundreds of thousands of employees, AAHOA members are core economic contributors in virtually every community. AAHOA is a proud defender of free enterprise and the foremost current-day example of realizing the American Dream.

State Bank of Texas was founded in 1987 by hotelier Chan Patel and continues to be owned and operated by the Patel family, with Chan Patel (father) serving as CEO, Sushil Patel (son) as President, and Rajan Patel (son) as Chief Lending Officer and EVP. As the largest Indian-American-owned bank in the U.S., the bank focuses on lending within the hospitality industry.

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