Born in a remote village of Odisha, Jagiapada. Satya lost his mother, Basanti, when he was just six-month-old. His biological father remarried and started a new life. His aunt (father’s sister), Netra, and her husband, Anadi, adopted him. He started referring to them as Ma and Bapa. Though they had 18 children, none survived. Satya had grown up as an only child with parents that showered all their love, attention and affection on him.
He finished his primary education at the village school and for elementary education, he had to commute 2km away from home. His high school too was about 5km away. “At times, I rode a bicycle and at times, walked all the way. But it was all fun. My father, who actually was my uncle, was a farmer – we weren’t rich but extremely happy!”
Growing up, Satya wanted to be a doctor but did not pursue it as he’d faint at the slightest sight of blood. He rather chose to study Commerce and took admission in Samanta Chandrasekhar College in the holy city of Puri and got a chance to live in a hostel which was his first lesson on independence. College brought him the exposure that made him super ambitious.
“Many of my classmates used to dream of the US. I started dreaming too and one of my friends, Ladu Patnaik, proved to be my guardian angel! He was preparing for MBA in the US and guided me too – MBA wasn’t too common in India back then. I’d ever be thankful to him.” His relatives monetarily helped him with his tickets and other expenses and he was ready to explore horizons unknown to him yet.
Into a New World
In 1972, he boarded his first-ever flight. He had dreams in his eyes and skills and talent in his persona. Upon landing at Memphis airport, US, he never realized the new country could give him some tough nights. The cold weather hit him hard, to add to which was the lack of food that Indians would deem food! “Oh, but I guess I adapted well. It didn’t take too long because there were other things on my mind. When the lack of money and dreams of success top the charts, food takes a back seat.” Determined to make a success out of himself, Satya moved to Kentucky and enrolled for an MBA at Eastern Kentucky University, for which he had a presidential scholarship. To sustain himself and his studies, he also did a part-time job to finance his studies. “I completed my MBA in 1975 and found a job as an auditor with a CPA firm to do some auditing work for the US government contract projects in various state capitals.”
Hungry for more knowledge and expertise, he enrolled on a CPA Exam Tutoring class and became a Certified Public Accountant in 1980. “I passed the most difficult exam on my first attempt and got my CPA license. Back then, there were just around five Indian CPAs in the USA and I was one of the most senior there.”
A member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), he later moved to tax and financial planning and established a business with around 500 clients, mostly physicians.
It all started in 1980 when Satya established his first company, Shaw Tax Advisory Group, for accounting, tax and financial planning practices for small businesses and medical practices.
Satya has various portfolios but the one he enjoys the most is his association with the American Association of Physicians of Indian-origin (AAPI), which was started in 1982 in the Detroit area. Back then, Indian doctors had to take more exams than their US counterparts and faced discrimination in hospital privileges beginning with their residency at the hospitals. To fight this discrimination, one of his clients, Dr Ujamalal Kothari, and some other Indian doctors set up AAPI and he volunteered to become a part of it. “It feels great to know that now in the US every seventh patient is treated by an Indian physician and out of 20,000 medical college admissions, Indian students grab 20% of the seats.” With AAPI, he fulfilled his dream of helping lots of doctors with their tax and financial planning including their job placements. Currently, AAPI has over 90,000 members and he has never missed any of its annual conventions.
In 1989, Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) was created in Atlanta by a group of Indian hotel owners, including his client Rama Group, to fight against discrimination in getting hotel property insurance. Satya also volunteered to join the group as a life member and he is actively involved in every annual AAHOA Convention. At present, AA-HOA members own 65% of all hotels/motels in the US.
In 1994, with a suggestion from a close friend, Dr Kiran C Patel, he sponsored the first fundraising event and collected funds from several doctors and donated a huge amount to India Cultural Center, which was inaugurated by Governor Jeb Bush.
In 2004, he was the moving force behind the formation of the Asian American Store Owners Association (AASOA), a non-profit organization providing leadership and a strong, coherent voice for all convenience store retailers, representing their concerns at all levels to the government and media. It also fought discrimination against store property insurance, merchandise purchases and the safety of store employees. Satya also inspired other states to do the same. As a result, currently, 15 states have AASOA and over 50% of convenience stores and gas stations are owned by Indians.
In 2012, he along with Dr Kiran C Patel and Kunal Jain co-founded the Tampa Chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) in Silicon Valley, which has grown to over 60 chapters and 15,000 members around the world. In the same year, he and Dr Vipul Kabaria, a client, started the Sheriff’s Indian Advisory Council, a citizen advisory council that bridges the Asian-Indian community to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office to help the Sheriff’s office to serve, protect and defend the community while preserving rights and dignity of all.
“Now that I have the resources, I want to give back to my people back home too. I want to do as much as I can for my community.”
The Family Man
He got married to Rajashree in 1993 in an arranged set-up. She was not only pretty but also ambitious and successful. An IT graduate from Ravenshaw College, Cuttack, she started an IT company in 1999 to help with Y2K problems. He helped her bring over 120 IT professionals from India on H1 visas. She chose to move to the real-estate business in 2009 and continues to garner all the success.
The Shaws have two children: Sonali is doing a clinical rotation in Chicago to pursue her medical career. Sunil did his graduation from Florida Atlantic University. Keen to get into business, he is currently gaining experience with several places including FedEx.
People do face a lot of challenges, some fight back and some lose. Satya is one who has often stepped back, prepared and returned with a winning attitude and won it like a braveheart. “Once you have a commitment to certain things, it gives the most motivation,” he concludes.