# Chirag Patel

**AI & Digital Transformation Director / Managing Director** — United Kingdom, United Kingdom

> Consumer business and technology leader with 18+ years founding and scaling companies across the UK and GCC, now directing AI and digital transformation through consultancy work.

Career Archetype: **Horizon Navigator** (RB-DG) — One of the first Horizon Navigators on Saywise

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/chiragpatelai
- membula.io: https://membula.io

## Experience

### CEO, Nusantara Finance (2025-07 – present)
Jakarta, Indonesia · Every emerging market will eventually need its own currency to move at internet speed. Indonesia, the fourth most populous country on earth, is where that question gets answered first. Nusantara is building NIDR, a rupiah stablecoin designed to be fully reserve-backed and redeemable one to one on public blockchain infrastructure. The thesis is simple: rupiah value should settle as fast, as cheaply and as transparently as dollar value already does, without leaving the rupiah.

### Founder & Principal Consultant (AI Transformation), Membula (2024-05 – present)
City Of London · Leading an AI and digital transformation consultancy delivering agentic AI, intelligent automation and platform builds. Direct discovery with owners and executive teams to identify and prioritise AI opportunities with measurable outcomes. Delivered a multi-seller e-commerce marketplace with custom portals for a UK distribution group, an autonomous AI collections agent that retired manual arrears processes, and an AI-powered CRM saving £15,000+ annually through retrieval-augmented generation.

### Founder & Managing Director, Akaya Bistro (2018-04 – 2023-02)
Bahrain · Founded and operated an award-nominated hospitality venue, managing design and construction on time and budget. Built a 4.6/5-rated operation with multiple Time Out nominations. Exited through a successful trade sale in 2023, handling valuation, buyer marketing and negotiation directly.

### Managing Director, CP & Co. (FMCG Import & Distribution) (2008-08 – 2023-05)
Bahrain & Saudi Arabia · Led a third-generation family import and distribution business across the GCC with full P&L, financial operations and strategic planning responsibility. Executed the company's first international expansion into Saudi Arabia, managing distribution, supplier relationships and logistics. Conceived and launched a new consumer product line in a 45-day pandemic turnaround generating USD 500,000+ from a single customer. Modernised operations across ordering, stock and reporting systems.

### Managing Director, Patel Construction Co (2008-08 – 2023-05)
Bahrain · Directed all project delivery for a turnkey construction firm, managing budgeting, procurement and quality assurance. Implemented digital project tracking and structured stakeholder reporting across end-to-end project delivery.

## Education

### Master of Science - MSc in Marketing, Bayes Business School (2007-09 – 2008-06)

### Bachelor of Science - BSc in Business Management, Bayes Business School (2004-09 – 2007-06)

### St Christopher's School, Bahrain

## Skills

AI Transformation, Digital Transformation, Consulting, Solution Architecture, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Vendor Management, Change Management, Stakeholder Management, Project Management, Programme Delivery, Intelligent Automation, Generative AI, Agentic AI, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, Operations Management, Construction Management, Entrepreneurship, Board of Directors, P&L ownership, financial management, bank facilities, strategic planning, governance, risk management, FMCG import, distribution, supply chain, retail supply, e-commerce platform builds, regulated consumer categories, hospitality operations, LLMs, agentic workflows, machine learning, predictive analytics, retrieval-augmented generation, data quality, data governance, responsible AI, human-in-the-loop design, conceptual architecture, process flows, data flows, integration patterns, API patterns, build/buy/partner evaluation, vendor selection, requirements management, scope control, distributed engineering teams, pilot-to-production, international expansion, business building, scaling, exits, B2B sales, Bitcoin

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Source: https://saywise.com/member4940 (last modified 2026-10-05T22:25:24.825Z)