Seeking to Grow Globally, OYO Promotes Aditya Ghosh to Strategic Role

NEW DELHI—OYO Hotels & Homes has elevated Aditya Ghosh, presently CEO, India & South Asia for the hotels and homes business, to the company’s board of directors.

Ghosh is joining Ritesh Agarwal, founder & Group CEO, OYO Hotels & Homes; Betsy Atkins, founder & CEO, Baja Corporation; and other industry experts like Munish Varma, managing partner, SoftBank Vision Fund; Bejul Somaia, partner, Lightspeed India Partners Advisors; and Mohit Bhatnagar, managing director, Sequoia Capital India Advisor, among others, making the board into powerful, diverse and global combination.

OYO has continuously been investing in further strengthening its corporate governance. The recent appointment of independent director Betsy Atkins to the board, who earlier invested in Yahoo and eBay, and now Ghosh, who hails with a depth of experience in running successful public companies, will both benefit the company, according to OYO.

Ghosh’s elevation and addition to a strong group of board members comes after his completion of one year in the company. During this time, he took the hotels and homes business in India & South Asia to greater heights and implemented several programs to strengthen operating metrics and customer experience, more than doubling the asset owner community from 5,500-plus to 18,000-plus hotels in a short span of time. In his new role, Ghosh will provide strength of governance and leadership as OYO evolves into a global high-performing company that scales sustainably on the path to profitability with higher expectations from consumers, asset owners, investors and employees. Ghosh will focus on five key areas: safety and security, customer experience, corporate governance, revenue management and stakeholder communications.

Reflecting on the development, Agarwal said, “Aditya’s strong business acumen, problem-solving capabilities, passion for building an organization with strong corporate governance and a high-performing work culture that thrives on principles of diversity and inclusion makes him the perfect choice for this larger and more strategic role, at a global level. I am certain that this decision will greatly help OYO achieve its goals, globally. Like always, we are blessed to have leaders like Aditya who continuously step up to bigger roles to ensure the company derives benefits from their wealth of experience in such a critical juncture of not just growth, but principled growth for the company. His learnings will be invaluable for all of us.”

Ghosh further stated, “I am thankful to the board for inviting me into the august group to further build OYO as a global brand to reckon with, by not just growing fast, but growing right… One of the biggest characteristics about OYO is the opportunity that we have to create a truly global brand out of India—one that is recognized and respected the world over for positively impacting the lives of thousands of employees, creating millions of economic opportunities as well as delighting millions of guests with hospitality experiences across multiple price-points. The opportunity is all this and more, as we aim to set new standards of corporate governance and build a sustainable business at scale, with a clear path to profitability. I am, therefore, excited and keen to play a larger role and harness my experience in helping a public company operate well and ascribe to high standards of sustainable growth. I hope to actively impact the ability of this 20,000-plus OYOpreneurs strong organization, around the world, to achieve its mission and work with some of the sharpest minds across various industries who are part of OYO’s venerable board, to guide the company, as it delivers against its values and promises to all stakeholders.”

OYO has also announced the appointment of Rohit Kapoor, the current CEO, new real estate businesses, as the CEO for the entire India and South Asia business. Over the last year, Kapoor has been overseeing the growth of OYO Life—the brand’s long-term rental housing portfolio as well as other new real estate businesses in India. Kapoor’s remit will now also span the operations of more than 18000-plus hotels across 500-plus cities in India SA.

Kapoor added, “This is a great opportunity as well as a humbling responsibility and I thank Ritesh and Aditya for the trust and confidence placed in me. Given the impressive performance of the hotels’ business in India and South Asia, I do have some big shoes to fill. I will do my best, and Aditya has promised to be my guiding light in the process. In the last year, the performance delivered has been tremendous in not just scaling operations across 500 cities and 18000-plus hotels but also delivering on sustainable growth with financial prudence. I look forward to working with Aditya and Ritesh during the transition period and also working with each one of the 10,000-plus strong OYOpreneur community in India & South Asia as we lead by example and set new standards of excellence for OYO and the hospitality industry at large.”