Sanjay Sethi All Set to Take Over as COO, ITC Hotels

WHEN SANJAY Sethi quit as Managing Director and CEO of Chalet Hotels, K. Raheja Corp's hospitality arm and developers of the JW Marriott and Renaissance hotels in Mumbai, earlier in the month, the industry was rife with speculation about his next move.
It's official now. The suave hotelier is all set to check in at ITC Hotels to take over the position -- that of Chief Operating Officer -- vacated some months back by Ranvir Bhandari. A top Marriott International executive was also in the race.
A hotel management graduate from IHM Pusa, with additional qualifications from Cornell, XLRI-Jamshedpur and IIM-Bangalore, Sethi has spent 28 years in the industry and is counted among the brightest professionals in the hospitality business. His last big project was the 585-keys JW Marriott at Sahar, Mumbai, but he first came to the industry's notice during his tenure with the Tatas, where he qualified and served as an assessor of group companies using the standards set by the Michael Baldrige-inspired Tate Business Excellence Model.
Sethi quit the Taj Group in 2006 to set up Berggruen Hotels in partnership with Berggruen Holdings, New York. Through its proprietary brand Keys Hotels, Resorts and Apartments, the company went about setting up a chain of mid-market hotels and upscale resorts in India. By the time Sethi left this assignment in 2014, he had guided the company to a sound beginning with 14 operating hotels and 22 projects under various stages of development.
From Keys, according to Sethi's official biography, he moved on to Chalet Hotels in January 2015 with the mandate of doubling the company’s portfolio in the next five years. The stint turned out to be short, and now we know why.