Content area
Full Text
The Iowa hotelier-cum-entrepreneur is running for U.S. Congress. And he's also only 29. Can he do it?
Ravi Patel is the president of Iowa-based Hawkeye Hotels, but not for too much longer, if he has his way. Not because he doesn't love the hospitality industry, but because the position he is looking for doesn't allow moonlighting. It also is located in Washington, D.C.
Last month, the 29-year-old Patel, who is of Indian descent, announced his candidacy for the United States House of Representatives, running in Iowa's first congressional district. If elected, it would be the first time Iowa had a minority representative in Congress.
Instead ofworrying about the performance of Hawkeye s owned-and-operated portfolio, Patel wants to concentrate on repairing the government and restoring the American Dream, something he knows too well as the son of immigrant parents.
"I'm running for Congress for many reasons," Patel exclusively told Hotel Management, "but chief among those reasons is I believe that in order for us to solve the problems we face as a country, we need innovators in office who can bring an entirely different way of thinking to Washington. If there is any institution that can benefit from a new way of thinking, it is most certainly Congress."
Patel undeniably has the drive and smarts to succeed in politics, but getting to the point to make a difference is the tough part. However, at such a young age, helping lead a family-run 52-hotel management portfolio, encompassing many of the big brands, his career arc is bending toward prominence.
"Working in the hotel industry is really the best education I could have received," he said. Patels father and mother started the business back in 1982 with one roadside hotel in Mena, Ark., with "nothing more than their hopes and dreams," Patel said. Today, Hawkeye Hotels owns and operates over $400 million in assets across the Midwest.
"If you talk to any employee at Hawkeye Hotels, you'll soon realize that they speak about the...