Ankur Vaidya

According to a release, the Federation of Indian Association of NY, NJ, CT (FIA-Tri-state), held its first internal meeting at its offices in Spotswood, N.J., since the COVID-19 pandemic, and after losing the Chairman of the Board, Ramesh Patel.

The meeting was called by FIA President Anil Bansal, in concurrence with the majority of the Board of Trustees and was held under the supervision of independent counsels.

Attendees included President Anil Bansal, Secretary Parveen Bansal, and 14 out of the 16 current Board members.

The primary purpose of the meeting was to address the inter-organizational review and brainstorm ways to point the organization in the right trajectory towards serving the community in these testing times.

Members of the Board also conducted an inter-board shuffling, selecting a new body to fill the vacuum left by the Chairman Ramesh Pate’s demise.

Padma Shri Dr. Sudhir S. Parikh, a long time FIA veteran, and Padma Shri H. R. Shah, were chosen as senior advisors. Both Parikh and Shah will take the role of nurturing, overseeing and advising the newly appointed Chairman, Ankur Vaidya, the youngest member of the Board and the youngest to be chosen as its chairman.

Vaidya is joined by Bipin Patel, as vice chairman and Jayesh Patel as the general secretary.

The current Board also consists of distinguished community stalwarts including Rambhai Gadhavi, Chandrakant Trivedi, Prabir Roy, Dr. Parvin Pandhi, Andy Bhatia, Srujal Parikh, Anand Patel, Dipak Patel and Kanubhai Chauhan.

Longtime veteran community leader, Albert Jasani, of Royal Alberts Palace, was chosen as the Unifying-Unity Trustee of the group, along with Yash Paul Soi as Emeritus Vice Chairman for FIA’s Golden Jubilee Year.