Distinguished excellence recognised: IHA 2023 celebrates the pinnacle of hospitality industry

The two-day extravagant BW HOTELIER Indian Hospitality Summit and Awards 2023 (IHA-2022) concluded on Saturday, October 21, with the much-anticipated Gala Awards night. Graced by Governor of Kerala Shri Arif Mohammad Khan as the Chief Guest, the night saw the best of the hospitality industry being recognised for their skill, talent and innovative approach over the last one year. The awards, which included felicitations for General Managers, Hotel Managers, Executive Chefs, Directors of Sales and Marketing, Human Resources Managers, Executive Housekeepers and Spa Managers, among others, also included a Hall of Fame Award 2023 to honour an industry veteran who has made significant contributions to the industry.

The winners of the awards were finalised through a jury process. One national jury, chaired by Kul Bhushan Kachru, Chairman Emeritus and Principal Advisor – South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group, was accompanied by four regional juries – North, West, East and South, chaired by Suresh Kumar, Founder, KUE Management Services and Founder & Mentor, ROSAKUE Hospitality; Farhat Jamal, Chairman – Travel, Tourism & Hospitality Committee, IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Sandip Mukherjee, Professor Emeritus & Advisor, Hospitality Academics and Veer Vijay Singh, CEO & MD, Trance Hotels, respectively.

Apart from the National Jury Chair and the four Regional Jury Chairs, the national jury consisted of Rajiv Kaul, Former President, Leela Hotels, Dilip Puri, Founder & CEO, Indian School of Hospitality, Diwan Gautam Anand, Founding Trustee, Cuisine India Foundation, Rattan Keswani, Former Dy Managing Director, Lemon Tree Hotels; Mandeep Lamba, President (South Asia), HVS Anarock; Jaideep Dang, Managing Director, Hotels & Hospitality Group, JLL, Rahul Pandit, CEO, Horizon Industrial Parks, Yateendra Sinh, Principal YS & Associates, Sarl, Switzerland and Kamal Kant Pant, Principal & Secretary, IHM Pusa, New Delhi. The jury was assisted in its process by IHA-2023 by Knowledge Partner, Indian School of Hospitality.

This year, BW Hotelier also honoured the illustrious legacy of late Anil Madhok and acknowledged the presence of foreign dignitaries – Dr Dipak Chand Jain, Former Dean at Kelloggs School of Management, Northwestern University, Illinois, USA and currently Co-Chair of Academic Council of China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) Social Security and Aging Finance Institute and Dimitris Manikis, President, Europe, ME, Eurasia, Africa, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts during IHA-2023. It celebrated the role of ITC Hotels for dishing out culinary magic during the G20 Summit.

Full list of IHA-2023 winners:

Hall of Fame: Patanjali Govind Keswani, Chairman and Managing Director, Lemon Tree Hotels

General Manager Luxury (National): Rajiv Kapoor, Fairmont Jaipur

General Manager Luxury (North): Abhimanyu Singh Lodha, Lodi New Delhi

General Manager Luxury (South): Jaikant Shroff, Taj MG Road Bengaluru

General Manager Luxury (East): Gaurav Soneja, ITC Royal Bengal, Kolkata

General Manager Luxury (West): Aveek Sengupta, Cluster GM (Ops) and GM, Taj Skyline, Ahmedabad

General Manager Upper Upscale (National): Pankaj Gupta, Crowne Plaza New Delhi Noida

General Manager Upper Upscale (North): Shuvendu Banerjee, Crowne Plaza New Delhi Okhla (IHG Hotel)

General Manager - Upper Upscale (North): Ashwni Kumar Goela, Area GM, Delhi NCR – RHG and GM, Radisson Blu Plaza Delhi Airport

General Manager - Upper Upscale (South): Amandeep Kaur, WelcomHotel By ITC Hotels, Richmond Road, Bengaluru

General Manager - Upper Upscale (East): Vishal Sharma, Vivanta Kolkata EM Bypass

General Manager - Upper Upscale (West): Ranvir Bhandari, Sr VP and GM, Trident Nariman Point, Mumbai

General Manager - Upscale (National): Nitin Pathak, Novotel, Guwahati GS Road

General Manager - Upscale (National): Harpreet Vohra, Area GM East India, RHG and GM, Radisson Blu Faridabad

General Manager - Upscale (East): Abhishek Kumar Bairagi, Regional GM and Hotel GM, Lemon Tree Premier, Bhubaneswar

General Manager - Upscale (North): Saurabh Thakur, Radisson Jodhpur

General Manager - Upscale (South): Saneej Pottakkad, The Gateway Hotel, Ernakulam

General Manager - Upscale (West): Sabyasachi Chatterjee, Fortune Park Galaxy Vapi

General Manager - Midscale (National): Anant Leekha, Cluster GM, Ibis Mumbai Vikhroli, Ibis Navi Mumbai & Ibis Thane

General Manager - Midscale (West): Rajendra Joshi, The Fern Residency Aurangabad 

General Manager - Midscale (North): Balagi Singh, Ibis Civil Lines Jaipur

General Manager - Midscale (South): Sanjeev Mandal, Courtyard By Marriott, Chennai

General Manager – Budget (National): Abhirup Bandyopadhyay, Holiday Inn Express Hyderabad Hitec City

General Manager - Budget (South): Tarun Singh, Country Inn & Suites By Radisson, Manipal

General Manager - Budget (North): Joy Mukherjee, Fortune District Centre Ghaziabad

General Manager - Budget (East): Cluster Manager, Ginger Hotels, Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand

General Manager - Budget (West): Ashish Kumar Singh, Cluster Manager, Ginger Goa, Panjim

BW HOTELIER Anil Bhandari Chef of the Year: Chef Sandeep Kalra, Director of Culinary, Pullman New Delhi and Novotel New Delhi Aerocity

Head of Culinary (North): Satya Sharma, Executive Chef, Taj Amer, Jaipur

Head of Culinary (South): Thimmaiah Barianda, Executive Chef, Vivanta Bengaluru Residency Road

Head of Culinary (East): Arabinda Seth, Executive Chef, Fairfield by Marriott Kolkata

Head of Culinary (West): Rohit Sangwan, Area Director Culinary West and Executive Chef, Raj Lands End, Mumbai

Head of Revenue Management (National): Varghese Thomas, Cluster Director of Revenue Management, Chennai OMR Complex

Head of Revenue Management (South): Market Director Revenue Strategy, Marriott Tamil Nadu

Head of Revenue Management (South): Ankita Pathak, Cluster Director of Revenue Management, The Leela Palace Bangalore

Head of Revenue Management (North): Navpreet Singh Dua, Director of Revenue Optimisation, Shangri-La Eros New Delhi

Head of Revenue Management (East): Gaurav Rohira, Revenue Manager, The Oberoi Grand, Kolkata

Head of Revenue Management (West): Sarel Nair, Director of Revenue, Taj Lands End, Mumbai

Head of Sales & Marketing (National): Kamal Deep Sharma, DoSM, Hyatt Pune

Head of Sales & Marketing (West): Nishtha Ghosh, DoS, Vivanta Pune Hinjewadi

Head of Sales & Marketing (North): Veenu Rastogi, Area DoSM, IHG SWA & DoSM, Crowne Plaza New Delhi Mayur Vihar Noida

Head of Sales & Marketing (South): Rajani Deb Nair, Commercial Director, Hilton Bengaluru Embassy Manyata Business Park

Head of Sales & Marketing (East): Rekibar Rehman, DoS, Radisson Blu Hotel Guwahati

Head of PR & Communications (National): Rituja Jadhao, Marcomm Manager, Hyatt Pune

Head of PR & Communications (West): Debosmita Paul, Marcomm Manager, The Leela Palace Udaipur

Head of PR & Communications (West): Sonia Paul, Cluster Director of Marketing, Grand Hyatt, Mumbai

Head of PR & Communications (North): Prisha Lamba, Director of Marcomm, Fairmont Jaipur

Head of PR & Communications (South): Nelson Sumit Gomes, Asstt Director of Mktg, InterContimental Chennai Mahabalipuram Resort

Head of PR & Communications (South): Raichel Angeline Lyda, Head of PR & Mktg Comm, The Leela Palace Chennai

Head of PR & Communications (East): Arundhati Ghosh, Cluster Head of PR – East, ITC Hotels, ITC Royal Bengal & ITC Sonar

Head of Engineering (National): Mohamed Javed Refai, CE-Cluster Hotels, Chennai; Taj Fisherman’s Cove Resort & Spa, Chennai

Head of Engineering (South): Namish Shetty, CE, The Oberoi Bengaluru

Head of Engineering (North): Vinay Paliwal, Area Engg Director – Jaipur & Amer and DoE, Rambagh Palace, Jaipur

Head of Engineering (East): Parveen Kumar, Head of Technical Services, ITC Royal Bengal & ITC Sonar Kolkata

Head of Engineering (West): Amitava Bhattacharya, Head of Technical Services, ITC Grand Central, Mumbai

Head of IT (National): Narendra Singh Rao, IT Manager, Taj Aravali Resort & Spa, Udaipur

Head of IT (West): Amol Yuvaraj Patil, Cluster IT Manager, ibis Vikhroli, Navi Mumbai and Thane

Head of IT (North): Sachin Kulshreshtha, Director IT & Systems, the Park New Delhi

Head of IT (South): Sanjeevi Rao, Information Systems Manager, ITC Grand Chola Chennai

Head of IT (East): Debashis Bhattacharya, Manager Information Systems, ITC Sonar and ITC Royal Bengal, Kolkata

Head of HR (National): Monalisa Samantaray, HR Manager, Lemon Tree Premier Patna

Head of HR (East): Arshiya Paul, Talent & Culture Manager, ibis Kolkata Rajarhat

Head of HR (North): Ansar Ahmed Shah, HR Manager, WelcomHotel By ITC Hotels, Pine N Peak

Head of HR (North): Ashish Chandra, Sr HR Manager, The Oberoi Amarvilas

Head of HR (South): Bhavani Mani Shankar Dutta, Director Talent & Culture, Novotel Hyderabad Convention Centre

Head of HR (West): Purnima Kumari, HR Manager, Courtyard By Marriott Pune Chakan

Head of F&B (National): Abhimayu Arora, F&B Manager, ITC Grand Chola, Chennai

Head of HR (South): Dushyant Singh, Exec Asstt Mgr, F&B, JW Marriott Bengaluru Prestige Golfshire Resort & Spa

Head of HR (North): Ankit Sadana, F&B Manager, Crowne Plaza New Delhi Rohini

Head of HR (North): Shashi Shankar, F&B Manager, Radisson Blu Faridabad

Head of HR (East): Vikas Toksya, Director of F&B, Radisson Blu Hotel Guwahati

Head of HR (West): Simon Gomes, EAM, Radisson Hotel Resort & Spa Lonavala

Head of Spa (National): Anuj Singh, Spa Manager, ITC Royal Bengal & ITC Sonar, Kolkata

Head of Spa (East): Rose Konyak, Asstt Spa Manager, The Westin Kolkata Rajarhat

Head of Spa (North): Sanyogita Singh, Spa Manager, ITC Rajputana, Jaipur

Head of Spa (South): Abish Radhakrishnan, Spa Manager, Conrad Bengaluru

Head of Spa (West): Dr Rajnessh Kumar, Spa Manager, Taj Exotica Resort & Spa Goa

Head of Accommodation (National): Ayan Halder, Director of Rooms, Courtyard By Marriott Bengaluru Hebbal

Head of Accommodation (South): V Titus Vinodh Kumar, FO Manager, Savoy, Ooty – IHCL SeleQtions

Head of Accommodation (North): Sukhpreet Singh Bath, Director of Rooms, Fairmont Jaipur

Head of Accommodation (East): Neha Kapoor, Director of Rooms, JW Marriott Kolkata

Head of Accommodation (West): Krishnarajsinh Dodia, Rooms Division Manager, Raffles Udaipur

Head of Procurement (National): Siddharth Das, Senior Materials Manager, The Oberoi New Delhi

Head of Procurement (North): Surendra Sharma, Purchase Manager, Le Meridien Gurgaon Delhi NCR

Head of Procurement (National): Vikram Singh, Purchase Manager, Fairmont Jaipur

Head of Procurement (South): E Keshava Reddy, Materials Manager, Novotel and ibis Bengaluru ORR

Head of Procurement (East): Rajesh Kumar Sinha, Procurement Manager, ITC Sonar and ITC Royal Bengal, Kolkata

Head of Procurement (West): Shivam Shrivastava, Materials Manager, The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai

Head of Housekeeping (National): Udit Mittal, Executive Housekeeper, The Taj Mahal New Delhi

Head of Housekeeping (National): Raja Mustafi, Director Housekeeping, The Park Kolkata

Head of Housekeeping (North): Manish Kumar, Deputy Executive Housekeeper, Lemon Tree Gurgaon

Head of Housekeeping (National): Devashish Majumdar, Executive Housekeeper, Crowne Plaza Today, Gurgaon

Head of Housekeeping (East): Saikat Basu, Executive Housekeeper, Radisson Blu Guwahati

Head of Housekeeping (South): Subhadeep Chatterjee, Associate Director of Housekeeping, The Park Hyderabad

Head of Housekeeping (West): Sarita Fernandes, Executive Housekeeper, Taj Holiday Village Resort & Spa Goa