OYO strengthens its leadership table for India & SA business
OYO Hotels & Homes has today announced the elevation of three key business leaders within the India & South Asia business. The company has elevated Sharad Saxena to Chief Supply Officer - Franchise hotels business, South Asia, Asit Biswal to Chief Supply Officer - Frontier Businesses, South Asia, which comprises of OYO’s self operated hotels (OYO Townhouse, Collection O, SilverKey), student housing and co-living and OYO Home and Abhinav Ankur to Head of Strategy for OYO India & South Asia.
These appointments come as a part of the company’s efforts to drive sustainable business growth in the region while staying true to its mission of creating quality living spaces.
In his new role, Abhinav Ankur will be responsible for ensuring the hospitality chain’s sustained growth in the South Asia region by driving cross-functional strategic initiatives. Abhinav joined OYO’s Operations function in 2015 and led Central Operations for the India Franchise hotels business. He later went on to manage the bigger mandate of building operating capabilities - people, processes & technology - for OYO’s self-operated hotels business. He will be reporting to Rohit Kapoor, CEO, OYO Hotels & Homes, India & South Asia.
The other two key promotions include Sharad Saxena being elevated to Chief Supply Officer - Franchise business, South Asia, and Asit Biswal elevated to Chief Supply Officer - Frontier Businesses, South Asia. Both Sharad and Asit will be part of the South Asia leadership team. In their new roles, both of them will be responsible for driving all outcomes related to sustainable growth, customer and asset owner excellence and improved economics.
Commenting on the appointment, Rohit Kapoor, CEO, OYO India & South Asia said, “We are extremely pleased to have Abhinav, Sharad and Asit join the leadership team for India & South Asia at OYO. As a meritocracy driven organisation, we are firm believers in the power of distributed leadership and look forward to seeing the teams thrive under their able guidance. I am confident that they will deliver and add value in accelerating OYO’s next phase of sustainable growth in South Asia. Big congratulations to all of them.”
Sharad Saxena has been leading OYO Workspaces as the Business Head. Under his leadership, OYO Workspaces has grown to 18,000+ seats in 27+ centres across 11 cities within a short span of 9 months. Sharad will continue to oversee the Workspaces business in the interim. Sharad is an alumnus of IIT-Delhi and IIM-Ahmedabad and has worked with organizations such as ITC, McKinsey & Company, Ranbaxy and Max India Limited before joining OYO.
Asit Biswal has been one of the earliest members of OYO Life, the company’s co-living business. He started his journey with OYO in 2015 as Head of the Bhubaneswar Hub. He went on to become the Vice President and National Business Head for OYO LIFE, where he steered OYO’s coliving business towards becoming the fastest-growing and largest long-term rental housing player in India. Asit is an alumnus of IIM-Ahmedabad and has worked in organizations such as Infosys and Samsung.