Dhaval Patel

Dhaval Patel is the Founder and Chairman of Universal Partners, a financial services group built around a simple belief: business should change lives and add value.

With a career spanning banking, foreign exchange, payments and financial services, Dhaval has spent more than 16 years working with internationally operating businesses and building high-performing commercial teams. His experience spans frontline banking and revenue generation as well as strategy, leadership, and regulation.

Today, his focus is on building Universal Partners into one of the most trusted financial partners for internationally operating businesses.

Universal Partners combines deep financial expertise with technology and a high-touch approach to service, helping businesses navigate international payments, foreign exchange and financial complexity. The firm continues to expand its capabilities across payments, banking solutions and wider financial services.

Dhaval believes the difference between good companies and great ones ultimately comes down to deep expertise, genuine character and smart tech. His philosophy is to recruit individuals with high ability and high character. Giving them a meaningful opportunity and creating an environment built around three values:

Own It. Win Together. Be Relentless.

Throughout his career, Dhaval has invested heavily in training, mentoring and creating opportunities for individuals to build careers, businesses and better lives. That philosophy sits at the heart of Universal Partners’ purpose: to change the lives of its clients through its ability, and the lives of its people through its culture.

Dhaval has received a number of business and leadership awards, including being named the 2024 Forty Under 40 UK Overall Winner and Banking & Finance category winner, as well as recognition through FEBE and the Great British Entrepreneur Awards. He is also a member of the Forbes Business Council.

As Universal Partners enters its next stage of growth, Dhaval’s ambition extends beyond building another financial services company. He is building an institution capable of operating internationally, continually evolving through technology and creating lasting value for its clients, its team and the communities It serves.

That is the difference Universal Partners is being built to deliver.