Digvijay ‘Danny’ Gaekwad started living the American Dream much before he left India. While doing his political science major at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara, he had told his friends that he would someday have his picture taken with an American president.

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He has indeed lived the dream mega-size. His personal website says “to date, Danny has met and been photographed with three US presidents: Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Donald Trump”. Like many other fellow Indian Americans, he is an unabashed admirer of the last gentleman on the list for what he calls his “progressive” policies.

Going by his announcement on Friday evening, Gaekwad has now turned his attention to his homeland. He has made a counter offer for Religare Enterprises, for 275 a share, just two days before the open offer of235 a share made by the Burman family opens on Monday. On Sunday, Gaekwad clarified that his offer is to acquire 55% stake. The ball is obviously in the market regulator’s court.

The son of a judge and grandson of an Indian Army Colonel, Gaekwad is certainly not miser in self-praise. The websites of his companies describe him as a “visionary, passionate leader, and a renaissance entrepreneur”. However, there are hardly any financial details available.

He is on the board of trustees at the University of Central Florida and stays at a 500-acre mansion in Florida with his family comprising wife Manisha and sons Kunal and Karan.

Gaekwad is the founder-CEO of NDS US, an IT & cloud services company, and the founder of Danny G Management, which owns and operates various restaurants and hotels. He also owns DG Hospitality, a hotel and restaurant management consulting company, and Danny Gaekwad Development & Investments, which oversees his real estate investments. In 2023, he founded Gala Bank in Ocala, Florida.

National Growth, one of his companies, has launched a private REIT offering only available to accredited investors, which requires a minimum investment of $100,000. “By implementing our strategy, enabled by the use of our “secret sauce”, we are able to produce stellar returns for both cash investors and investors who contribute eligible properties in exchange for equity in the REIT”, his website says.

The road to the big league in America wasn’t an easy one after he arrived in the US in 1987. Without a job for many months, he started his maiden entrepreneurial venture, a convenience store in Orlando, with $5,000 borrowed from friends. That one store grew to a chain of 26 across Florida, and he sold the chain eight years later. He then launched his next venture, NDS USA, a medical billing and transcription company. In five years it grew to become the largest medical billing and transcription business in the world.

Gaekwad entered the hospitality industry and real estate development in 1997. His flagship business, Danny Gaekwad Developing and Investments, is the parent company overseeing his real estate investments and other subsidiaries. Over the last three decades, he has built over a dozen small- and medium-sized entities including convenience stores, real estate development, hotels, restaurants and IT consulting companies located throughout the country and internationally.

Today, his group owns more than a dozen properties within the hospitality sector, including premium brands such as Intercontinental Hotel Group, Carlson Hotel Group and Hilton Hotel Worldwide. He also owns and operates DG Hospitality, a hotel and restaurant management consulting company that handles sales and marketing for hotels and restaurants from inception to operation.

Other projects in the pipeline include Tru by Hilton in Gainesville, Florida, a new Holiday Inn Express Hotel, and his latest project that is dear to his heart: the new Hilton Garden Hotel, a premium property under construction in downtown Ocala at a site where the historic Ocala House Hotel once stood. It will feature three restaurants that includes a rooftop venue offering scenic views of downtown Ocala, 10 residential apartments on the second floor, and retail shops on the ground level.

In an interview to Fortune India, Gaekwad said his investment philosophy is simple: identifying undervalued opportunity, infusing them with capital and expertise and driving substantial growth. Though he hasn’t had much exposure to financial services, he thinks this itself would be enough to bring glory to Religare, which has been in the midst of a messy takeover battle and many controversies.