Minor Hotels announced the appointment of Lokesh Kumar as Vice President of Development for the Middle East

Minor Hotels announced the appointment of Lokesh Kumar as Vice President of Development for the Middle East. Kumar brings over 23 years of strategic business leadership experience and a proven track record in managing owner and key government relationships whilst executing strategic public-private partnerships to maximise revenues and optimise costs. Kumar joins Minor Hotels from his most recent management consulting role, where he demonstrated his prowess in developing tourism offerings along the 1,600 km Coral Highway from Jezan to NEOM, whilst creating futuristic hotel concepts for the tourism authority in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He also offered feasibility and development strategy for mixed-use city development projects across multiple asset classes including hospitality, commercial, residential and education. Additionally, Lokesh provided advisory services for operator selection and joint venture evaluation for a sovereign fund entity in KSA that aimed to develop 4,000 hotel rooms in key cities. His exceptional track record in managing key responsibilities of development, asset management and commercial with hospitality companies including Movenpick, Unison Hotels and The Oberoi Group, puts him in an ideal position to drive Minor Hotels’ future growth initiatives and expansion in the Middle East. In his new role, Kumar will oversee development strategies and management of assets across Minor Hotels’ portfolio of hotels, including the Anantara, Avani, NH Hotels, NH Collection, Oaks and Tivoli brands. His expertise in business process enhancement will also contribute to commercial effectiveness across all the brands’ projects. Lokesh holds an MBA from the Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management in India after completing hotel school at the Institute of Hotel Management, Goa.