RAMESH SOPARAWALA
India Post News Service
CHICAGO: Although he has notched many firsts in the course of over three decades as a front ranking Indian American businessman in Chicagoland, Anil R. Shah likes to keep a low profile and remain unobtrusive , a quality rare in today’s publicity-hungry society.
Heading World Money Exchange Inc., Anil Shah is the only Indian who has successfully managed a top international currency exchange company in the Chicagoland for over three decades now. His company is probably the only global currency exchange firm which has continually drawn recognition for over a decade from the Better Business Bureau, an independent agency founded in 1912 with a mission to focus on advancing marketplace trust.
WME, started in May 1987, deals in global currencies – British pound sterling, euro, Mexican peso Japanese yen, Indian rupee – to name a few. One can visits his Downtown office and buy or sell any international currency. Its clients are mostly non-Indians. There is probably no global currency that one cannot get from WME and there is probably not a destination in India and a good number of countries that WME cannot reach.
Anil R. Shah came to this county in mid-Seventies after successfully passing chartered accountancy examination in India. He worked for a while as Senior Vice President in a local American accounting firm. He then decided to do something on his own and launched World Money Exchange and a couple of years later Shah Associates, an accounting firm specializing as tax consultants.
He had not looked back since then and celebrated 32 years of WME’s existence this month. Scores of smaller currency exchanges across Illinois depend on WME for their needs of global currencies. As put by Prabhaker Patel, a former associate with Money Dart, a Middle East-based global exchange firm, Anil Shah works with relatively low margins and huge degree of honesty and transparency.
Anil Shah has been also giving back to the community and that too without seeking anything in return. He has been a consistent supporter of many a community organization, a dependable help for many cultural shows and programs. He has on his own sponsored festivals like Navaratra and Dandiya.
