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Girish Capital

Our Team

Meet the team behind every investment.

Setul G. Patel

Setul G. Patel, MD, MBA

Founding Partner &
Managing Director

spatel@girishcapital.com

Dr. Setul Patel is an experienced healthcare and business executive bringing over twenty years of experience to successfully scale service industries by creating purpose-driven and vision-focused environments. In 2014, Setul founded Girish Capital to assist in the capital and venture needs of young entrepreneurs and startup companies, leveraging his ability to scale businesses with high growth potential. Girish Capital has worked with development groups across numerous industries including Sport Clips hair salons, freestanding emergency centers, Signarama franchises, short-haul trucking, and professional eye care. He also currently serves as Founder & CEO of the healthcare startup FormulaMed, which is poised to innovate technology-driven, subscription-based healthcare.

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Setul has always maintained his clinical practice as a cornerstone of his administrative duties, and currently practices emergency medicine on the Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona and at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He has also held senior management positions at Acute Medical Services and Neighbors Health, where he served as President & CEO for over eight years. After obtaining a degree in biochemistry, he graduated from the University of Virginia Medical School and completed specialty training at Christiana Care Health System in Newark, Delaware, where he was also Chief Resident. In 2008, Setul obtained his MBA from the University of Tennessee, graduating Phi Kappa Phi.

Throughout his career, Setul has brought transformational change to the organizations he has led, and believes true success comes from empowering the culture of an organization to drive best practices and innovation. In 2015, he received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for the Gulf Coast region and went on to be a national finalist. In 2016, he was a finalist for the Houston Business Journal’s CEO of the Year award. He is a YPO Texas Gulf Coast member and has called Houston home since 2006.

Education

  • 1999 - Bachelor of Science, Biochemistry, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
  • 2003 - Doctor of Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
  • 2008 - Master of Business Administration, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
Cheston C. Syma

Cheston C. Syma

Founding Partner

cheston@mvpway.com

Cheston Syma is a U.S. Marine veteran, a former security contractor for the U.S. State Department and Central Intelligence Agency, a Cum Laude graduate of the University of Houston-Downtown with a degree in Business Finance, and now an entrepreneur based in the greater Houston area. He consistently leads with the foresight to see opportunities and monetize them for financial return and equity growth.

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As a U.S. Marine, Syma quickly rose to become the Platoon Sergeant of his infantry platoon and served as a primary marksmanship instructor for his unit. He was then accepted into the Marine Security Guard program and served as a Marine Guard at U.S. Embassies including London and Port-au-Prince, where he held Top Secret clearance. Syma later became a security contractor during the peak of the Iraqi conflict, serving his nation once again in the close protection of U.S. diplomats, senators and congressmen in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Syma now leads a management team that oversees a diversified portfolio of service-related, multi-unit franchises spanning Texas and the Midwest, including Sport Clips and Big Blue Swim School. He thrives on leveraging economies of scale to drive best-in-class returns and superior customer experiences across all brands. Cheston resides in Katy, Texas, volunteers his time to help local veterans, and is a member of the YPO Texas Gulf Coast chapter.

Education

  • 2012 - Bachelor of Arts, Cum Laude, Business Finance, University of Houston-Downtown, Houston, TX
Erica Somes

Erica Somes

Director of Finance & Corporate Controller

esomes@girishcapital.com

Erica Somes brings more than 25 years of financial management experience to Girish Capital. She spent 16 years in public accounting as an auditor, then became controller of a large multimillion-dollar wholesale petroleum company, where she found her passion for finance. Leading its financial operations for more than eight years, she helped grow gross revenue by more than 45%, which led to expansion to multiple locations. In 2014 she put that experience to work starting a family-owned local transport logistics company.

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Today Erica manages all aspects of accounting and finance for Girish Capital and FormulaMed, across numerous holdings, investments and clients in a wide range of industries. Her goal is simple: find financial strategies that promote growth and stability while controlling risk.

A lifelong resident of Brazoria County, Erica loves to call Texas home. When she isn’t working, you’ll find her spending time with family and managing “the zoo” on their farm.

Drew Pelter

Drew Pelter

Director of Real Estate Development

dpelter@girishcapital.com

Drew Pelter is the principal of Pelter Development Corp., a land development and general construction firm responsible for the general management of Shadow Creek Ranch, a 3,500-acre master-planned community in Pearland, Texas, valued at more than $2 billion in 2015. He has more than 26 years in the construction and development industry, overseeing projects in five states with companies including E.A. Collins Development Corp., Steel Developers, CPS (contractor to the Rouse Corporation) and Reno Iron Works.

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Drew joined E.A. Collins Development in 1995 and was named its President in 2000, following the death of its founder, Al Collins. He has assembled more than 3,500 acres of land for several residential and commercial communities, and from 1998 to 2002 generated more than $35 million in real estate sales. He also served for eight years as President of Steel Developers, L.L.C., a framing company that builds with steel, a renewable resource; since 1994 it has framed more than 500 homes in southern Nevada and several commercial buildings. For more than seven years he served on the Board of Directors of the SSMA, an association representing about 80 percent of all light-gauge steel manufactured in the United States. He was also a special appointee to the Pearland Chamber of Commerce in 2006 and a member of the Alvin ISD Education Foundation from 2013 to 2015.

Drew brings this real estate and development experience to Girish Capital, where his analysis of every aspect of real estate development has proven extremely valuable to clients.

Drew lives in the Sienna Plantation suburb of Houston with his wife, Traci, and son, Chase.

Education

  • 1992 - Business and Pre-Law, University of Nevada, Reno, NV