Lopa Patel is the Founder of redhotcurry.com, Britain’s Leading South Asian Lifestyle & Shopping Portal. The award-winning site was launched in November 2001 and celebrates Asian life in the UK with an informative collection of in-depth articles on race, culture, entertainment, religion, food, health, ethnic fashion and beauty, all written with a South Asian perspective. The site currently attracts around 40,000 unique visitors and 3 million hits each month.

Lopa Patel is also Co-Director of DMS Direct - a business-to-business database management, mailing, storage & fulfilment and response handling company - which she founded with her husband and co-director Amit Patel in 1991.

Before this, Lopa Patel was on ICI's fast-track graduate training scheme gaining experience in export sales, product management and marketing communications. She joined ICI after attaining a 2:1 in a joint honours degree in Biochemistry & Applied Molecular Biology from the University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology (UMIST) in 1986.

Lopa's professional skills lie in business management, entrepreneurship, media, marketing; direct marketing, database management, IT and e-commerce. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and the Chartered Institute of Journalists (CIOJ). She has attained a Diploma in Marketing (1991), a Diploma in Direct Marketing (1994) and is one of the few Chartered Marketers in the UK (1998). In 2003 she became the first Asian woman to be elected a Fellow of the Institute of Direct Marketing (IDM).

Lopa Patel achieved recognition for her work when she won the ‘Asian Woman of Achievement Award 2005’ in the Media Category. She also won the ‘Asian Jewel Award 2005’ in the Arts/Media & Sports Category, a special Windrush Judges Award 2004 and the Windrush ‘Internet & Technology Innovator’ Award 2003. redhotcurry.com was shortlisted for the AOP (Association of Online Publishers) Awards 2003 and the BIMA (British Interactive Media Association) Awards 2003.

Lopa Patel has been involved voluntarily with a number of women’s groups, is a guest lecturer at the IDM and regularly speaks at business events, forums and conferences. She brings a pragmatic, fun-filled view on starting a new business, entrepreneurship among women and ethnic minorities, work/life balance issues for mothers and of course, how to harness internet technology for business.

In her voluntary role as Vice President of Women in Direct Marketing (WDM) - a not-for-profit organisation set-up to help women involved in the direct marketing industry sector - Lopa responsible for several high profile projects, including the launch of an award-winning web site that she wrote. The site, www.wdm-uk.org was launched in 1998 and won the 1999 Silver Smart Award from ‘Direct Response’ magazine. It was also the runner-up in 1999 Yell Awards from ‘Internet’ magazine (reader's choice category) and the 1999 Marketing Intelligence Award from ‘Marketing Direct’ magazine. Lopa also project managed the launch of the first industry-wide employment issues survey for the direct marketing industry. WDM has since merged with the DMA (Direct Marketing Association).

In November 1999 Lopa Patel launched the website for DMS Direct. The site, which focuses on the business-to-business arena and promotes direct marketing, was short-listed for the 2000 ‘Revolution’ Awards for New Media Marketing (B-2-B) and the 2000 Smart Awards from ‘Direct Response’ magazine.

In late 1999, Lopa became a co-founder of e-women, a forum for women in new media to network, exchange ideas, develop skills, form alliances and share best practice.

Lopa's interest in writing started at an early age - whilst in the final year at school she wrote articles for ethnic newspaper 'Gujarat Samachar', in 1984 she was the editor of the University Newspaper 'Grip', in 1990 she was editor of ICI's divisional newspaper 'Rollcall' and wrote many of the group's press and brochure material too. She has contributed numerous articles to the marketing and direct marketing press between 1991 and the present. She now writes exclusively for redhotcurry.com on issues concerning British Asians.