Area businessman makes virtual appearance at U.K. graduation

The University of Cambridge’s Girton College — whose alumni include Arianna Huffington; Margrethe II, the queen of Denmark; and Princess Takamado, a member of the Japanese imperial family — held a virtual commencement ceremony July 11 that included remarks from Tampa businessman Paresh Patel, the founder, chairman and CEO of insurance company HCI Group Inc. 

Girton was established in 1869 as Cambridge’s first college for women, but it became coed and began to admit men in the late 1970s, when Patel, who was born in Kenya but grew up in India and then London — enrolled.