Neal Patel

Neal Patel is the Founder and Principal of Patel Partners, a federal government relations and strategic advisory firm based in Washington, D.C. He established the firm after serving as a Vice President at the Alpine Group, one of Washington’s premier lobbying firms ranked in the Top 20 by Bloomberg Government.

Prior to founding Patel Partners, Neal held senior roles in both the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. At the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), he served as Chief of Staff to the Deputy Director for Management and as Deputy Associate Director for Legislative Affairs under OMB Director Mick Mulvaney. In these roles, Neal was the Director’s lead liaison to the U.S. Senate, the Congressional Black Caucus, the business community, and industry stakeholders—working across the Executive Office of the President and federal agencies to advance key policy priorities. Concurrently, Neal was appointed Acting Chief of Staff at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), where he oversaw agency-wide management and reform initiatives.

Neal began his federal service in the U.S. Congress, where he spent seven years in both the Senate and House of Representatives. He served as Counsel and Communications Director for members on the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, and the Senate Banking Committee. 

In addition to his professional work, Neal is the co-founder of the Asian American Pacific Islander Leadership Association (AAPILA), a 501(c)(6) organization dedicated to advancing and empowering AAPI public policy and public affairs professionals in Washington, D.C.

A native of Nichols, South Carolina, Neal is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he earned a degree in Business Administration, and he holds a law degree from the Charleston School of Law. He lives in Arlington, Virginia, with his wife and their two children.