Appointment
HOTEL Business Review
Manish Kakkar
Manish Kakkar has been appointed as the Hotel Manager of Hotel ibis Jaipur. In his distinguished career, Kakkar had also served as the Operations Manager at ibis Gurgaon and as the Revenue Manager at Novotel Hyderabad Convention Centre and Hyderabad International Convention Centre. Kakkar also has the distinction of working with Trident Hilton Gurgaon & The Oberoi, New Delhi, Uppal’s Orchid (an Ecotel Hotel), New Delhi, and Le Meridien New Delhi in his reservoir of experience. Kakkar has over 14 years of experience in front office operations, sales, revenue management and reservation. He has had diverse exposure not only in different departments of hotels but also across hotels with different business models, markets and positioning, ranging from economy to super luxury, and from branded chain to stand-alone hotels.
Jitin Neol
Jitin Neol has been appointed as the Head of Sales at Hotel ibis Jaipur. His first association with Accor India began in 2008 when he played a role in the launch of ibis in India. Neol comes with over eight years of experience and hails from Institute for International Management & Technology, Gurgaon (IIMT). Neol has earlier worked with Country Inns & Suites By Carlson, Jaypee Hotels, and Radisson Edwardian Hampshire. An avid sportsperson, he was even chosen to play soccer for Nationals.
Tarun Gupta
The Suryaa, New Delhi has also appointed Tarun Gupta as the Director – Sales & Marketing. He has in the past been responsible for establishing and directing the marketing and sales activities for various organisations along with handling their advertising and public relations. In his new role, Gupta would be responsible for strategy formation and for assuring proper work execution using the resources. According to him, “The leadership team of the hotel has announced aggressive plans to consolidate its position as the best value-for-money hotel in Delhi and I look forward to the challenge of establishing it in the very competitive Delhi market.” Prior to this present position, Gupta had worked with Crowne Plaza Okhla New Delhi, Shangri-La’s - Eros Hotel, New Delhi, Country Inns & Suites By Carlson, and Hyatt Regency Delhi.
Pankaj Mathur
The Suryaa, New Delhi has recently appointed Pankaj Mathur as the General Manager of the property. Mathur comes with a rich experience of over two decades and has the exposure of working with internationally renowned hotel chains like Starwood, Hyatt, Marriott, Oberoi’s, Taj and ITC- Welcomgroup.
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Sept-Oct ’13
Enthusiastic and upbeat on this new challenge, Mathur confidently said, “The Suryaa, New Delhi has always maintained a unique position in the hospitality industry in Delhi, and I look forward to leveraging my experience for significantly contributing towards accelerating the growth of The Suryaa, New Delhi to newer heights. I am eager to lead the talented team towards setting new standards of lifestyle hospitality and delivering the new brand promise, ‘SERVICE SO MEMORABLE.’
Hem Chander
Hem Chander has been appointed as the Executive Suos Chef at Hotel ibis Jaipur. Chander comes with almost a decade of rich experience in food & beverage operations and team management in the hospitality industry. He is well-versed to handle coffee shops, specialty fine dining and banqueting. Chander’s work experience included tenures with Atlantis, The Palm Jumeriah Dubai, Wildflower Hall, Shimla in the Himalayas, and Comfort Inn & Suites by Choice Hospitality International among others.
Balagurunathan Venkatesan
Balagurunathan Venkatesan has been promoted as the Area Director of Food and Beverage at Asiana Hotels & Resorts, Chennai. He will be responsible for the F&B operations of the hotels, which come under the ambit of the Asiana brand. He brings with him over 30 years of experience in the hotel industry out of which the past six years were with Asiana. Prior to his tenure with Asiana, he has had work exposure with Taj, Oberoi, InterContinental, Rotana, Shangri-La and GRT brands. Venkatesan has the exposure of working in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, United Kingdom and Burmuda. He is also a recipient of Golden Hat Award, awarded by IFCA (2009).
Arun Raj D Arun Raj D has been promoted as the General Manager of Asiana Hotel, OMR. He has a rich experience of 10 years with the hospitality industry. Prior to joining Asiana he has worked with Beach House at Manafaru (Maldives), Aadaran Resorts (Maldives) and Taj Coromandel (Chennai). Besides planning, organising, developing, coordinating and overseeing operational activities, he has also been involved in general administration and corporate office relations.