Nimesh Patel

Group Chief Executive Officer, Spirax

Search every verified Nimesh Patel interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Nimesh Patel, Group Chief Executive Officer at Spirax, discussed his experiences with race and diversity in a September 2021 interview. He stated that "society's attitudes to race were quite different" when he was growing up in London, and that "open discrimination wasn't as rare as I think many people would think that it is today." Patel described his career path as a Chief Financial Officer who is "not an accountant" and said he was "not the conventional candidate," adding that more people willing to give such opportunities would increase diversity in corporate leadership. Patel also spoke about building diverse teams during his time at Anglo American, noting that he initially thought his team was diverse because it included people from different countries, functions, and backgrounds. He emphasized the importance of "cognitive diversity" and balancing the preservation of unique heritage and experience with integration. Patel said he tells his children to push themselves to be the best they can be, regardless of their chosen path.