THE JOURNEY

Kotturu, where Dr Neel attended elementary school, lacked electricity and proper infrastructure. The village school had just one teacher and no classroom supplies. “We wrote on sand that was brought from the river near the village,” Dr Neel recalls. It was only after enrolling in a Catholic school Dr Neel discovered true discipline and purpose. “The school was so strict that if you failed the final exam, they issued a transfer certificate. I had no choice but to succeed,” he recalls. He dreamed of becoming an engineer, but his father urged him to pursue medicine. Respecting his father’s wish, Dr Neel joined medical school, excelled in the state exam, and graduated as valedictorian.
During his first posting as a young doctor in a small village clinic in Sidiginamala, Dr Neel witnessed a woman die because the pharmacy lacked IV fluids. “That changed me,” he says. “I refused to sign any fraudulent papers, and when my boss threatened me, I told my father that I was leaving the country.”
In 1973, he arrived in New York to join St John’s Riverside Hospital. “They sent me a free air ticket, picked me up at the airport, provided lodging and meals, paid me, and taught me. I thought—this is where I belong.” He completed his residency at New York Medical College and then pursued a cardiology fellowship in Connecticut before establishing his private practice.
He later moved to Neillsville, Wisconsin, where he served as President of the Multi-Specialty Neillsville Clinic and Chief of Staff at Neillsville Memorial Hospital. A decade of practice and some near-fatal ice-and-snow mishaps prompted him and his wife to move to Atlanta. In Georgia, success followed once again. He continued practicing cardiology at BJC Medical Center (now Northridge Medical Center) and again became Chief of Staff.
He had everything he asked for and more. But a quiet realisation kept nagging him. “I realised that when I attended medical conferences, income stopped but expenses remained. But a bank continued to function even without its owner.”
In 1995, he established Quantum Capital Corporation and Quantum National Bank, starting from scratch while maintaining his medical practice. “I never thought I’d leave medicine,” he admits. “The bank was just a side business—a good retirement plan.”
When the 2008 financial crisis struck, the company was battling bad loans, and “I kept injecting funds I didn’t even have to keep it alive,” he recalls. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the bank thrived by distributing government-backed PPP loans. In 2023, Dr Neel sold the bank through the merger of its parent company, Quantum Capital Corporation, with HomeTrust Bancshares, Inc., after growing its assets from US$5 million to US$665 million.
He continues serving on the Board of HomeTrust Bancshares and HomeTrust Bank and is also a Commissioner on the Georgia Student Finance Commission and an Executive Board Member of the Indian American International Chamber of Commerce (USA). “I started a bank with very little,” he says. “Now it’s part of a US$4.6 billion organisation.” He smiles, “Not bad for a doctor who just wanted to go to a conference.”