Jai Lalwani
Jai started his business career in Cocoa trading and as an importer of automobiles into West Africa in 1996.
In 1998, He progressed into constructing and operating a transformer factory before relocating to the United States in 2000.
Once settled in the US, Jai became involved in the consumer electronics business and started 12 large entertainment venues which he sold for a profit in 2004.
From 2004 through 2008, Jai launched several ventures including: a full service Mortgage Fund on behalf of his family with annual lending volume in excess of $300 million, and Fuel Group International which is currently developing over $1 billion of hospitality assets in partnership with Jorge Perez’s Related Group of Florida.
Subsequently, Jai launched Black Diamond Hospitality LLC to purchase six distressed assets and is under contract to purchase an additional six assets with revenues in excess of $85 million, and started Black Diamond Construction, LLC which is headed by Bob Hasick, a 30 year veteran of the development and construction industry.
At present, Jai has developed a unique business strategy to enter the banking industry and, to this end has established US Bank & Trust, a Delaware LLC, which is under contract to make its first acquisition, a community bank located in Chicago, Illinois.
Back Ground
Jai Lalwani was born in Allahabad, a small town in Northern India. His father worked for a company located in Lagos, Nigeria
called Zapata Marine Service which was founded and owned by former president George Bush Senior. Jai spent the majority of
his childhood years in Nigeria and then proceeded to attend a top boarding school in the United Kingdom before moving to
Tampa, Florida to pursue his passion for professional tennis while continuing his academic studies. Jai attained worldwide
ranking of 132nd on the junior level in his professional tennis career. Although his father him to attend college, Jai retained a
steadfast dedication to follow in his father’s footsteps as a successful business entrepreneur. With his father’s guidance and support, Jai launched an automotive import company and separately entered the Cocoa trading business, which happened to be one of his father’s specialties.
From there he moved on to opening a diverse set of over 20 companies in Florida, gaining vast and varied experience over
several years with a growing focus on commercial real estate and the financial services industry. At present, Jai is under
contract to acquire a community bank in Chicago, Illinois. As of now the bank is a small community bank with total assets of
approximately $225 million, however Jai believes the platform represents an untapped opportunity and has developed a
comprehensive plan to grow the bank’s assets to over $1 billion using a unique growth model never before implemented in the
US.
Jai is a strong believer in charity and helping his peers and still has a great tennis game. In 2011 Jai will be founding the Lalwani
foundation to help the underprivileged in the US but more so those in India by helping children there learn how to read and write efficiently and, more importantly, how to provide for themselves and their communities utilizing the resources found in their immediate surroundings.
He feels this will make the India-US bond stronger. He believes the knowledge and technology found in the US should not be enjoyed only by Americans, but must be shared with underprivileged youth in India in order to secure India’s future prosperity, today.
The foundation will be headed by his mother and father who possess tremendous experience in the area having devoted the last 15 years of their lives to helping the Indo-US youth achieve comfort and understanding through their religion and more specifically, Vedanta. He hopes their vision and dreams are fully realized through the Lalwani Foundation.
OUR TEAM
