A committed entrepreneur with 37 years of experience in the hospitality industry, Greesh Bindra has been associated with independent hotels as well as renowned chain hotels. Not only is his name popular across the industry, but he is also highly regarded among foreign guests who keep returning to the hotel he leads, regardless of their preference for brands. Even so, his collaborative and people-oriented approach, as well as his passion to develop young industry professionals into leaders has earned him the tag of ‘People’s Person’.
Greeshis currently Vice President– Operations with The Suryaa, New Delhi, where he has been since June 2019. His key achievements in this role include overseeing the Hilton-Dushanbe in Tajikstan; and spearheading a new project of an upcoming luxury resort in Jaipur. Earlier this year, he took up a contractual assignment with Signum Hotels & Resorts on its Board of Advisors as Chief Development Officer, wherein he is responsible for the development of the brand in India and international markets. He is also a member of The Board Of Advisors at Centriqe Inc., a multi-cloud native intelligent process automation, customer experience, and insights platform. Prior to this, he was Regional General Manager (North, West India & Bangladesh) for the InterContinental Hotels Group.
Greesh recently received the ‘Hotelier of the Year’ Award at the 15th Annual International Hospitality & Travel Awards (2019). and ‘Lifetime Achievement in Hospitality’ by The Golden Star Icon Awards (2019). An avid golfer in his leisure time, Greesh also sits on Executive Committee of India Golf Tourism Association.
Charles Fabian may well have been a successful cricketer, a model, or an actor, had he chosen to be one. He had to have some serious talent, having played league cricket from his school days right until 1991. And yes, he acted in a handful of commercials too. Yet, hospitality was his clarion calling; and that was the career track herode.
He began his career as an apprentice in the F&B department and gradually rose to Director, Operations, over a span of 38 years. During this period, he garnered heaps of experience in all F&B divisions, including specialty restaurants; allday dining outlets; permit rooms; and events & conferences. His first job was at the Taj Coromandel, where he worked for 15 years. He later worked at Savera Hotel (Chennai), The Residency Towers (Chennai), and The Residency Towers (Coimbatore).
Charles’ overseas experience includes three years in Muscat, Oman, on deputation while still at Taj Coromandel, where he rendered services for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He also worked for four years as F&B Manager at the Palace Inn Hotel, Bahrain.
He has been a member of Skål International Chennai since 2012, and helped institute the Skål Club of Coimbatore in 2019. Charles holds a Diploma in Hotel Management & Catering Technology from Annamalai University, Chennai. Today, he is content to sit back and listen to some relaxing music while reminiscing how nearly four decades in the hospitality industry have quickly flown by.
A member of Skål International’s Bangalore Chapter since 2003, Anurag Gupta made his mark straightaway, organising an exhibition during the Skål World Congress in Chennai the same year. He became a Committee Member (2012-2014), and later Secretary (2014- 2020). During his tenure as Secretary, he was instrumental in bringing the 48th Skål Asia Congress to Bangalore in 2019. He is currently President of Skål International Bangalore (2020-2022).
Clearly, exhibitions and event organisation is his forte. No surprise then that Anurag is the brain box behind the India International Travel Exhibition, India’s premier B2C & B2B travel & tourism event, which he has been putting together in the country’s Tier II and Tier III cities since 2007. IITE provides a great platform for interaction between HNIs from these B and C towns, and travel service providers, travel boards, and travel agents. The event is organised keeping in mind the consumer’s travel and leisure needs. The event also facilitates a launchpad for new entrepreneurs in the field.
Participants can reinforce their business links, for they converge with business professionals and entrepreneurs in a hassle-free environment. Anurag also publishes a monthly travel magazine, Corporate Outbound, since 2011, which is widely circulated in hotels, airlines, tourism boards, and the travel industry.
A postgraduate in Business Management, and a Diploma holder in Systems Management, Anurag loves driving across the length and breadth of India to understand the social fabric of the nation.
A Hotel Management graduate with a Masters in Marketing, Sudipta Deb is a seasoned hospitality professional with over 22 years of experience in the sector. He started his journey in hospitality industry from a stand-alone hotel and climbed the ladder and managed reputed national and international brands like ITC, Accor and Lemon Tree. His passion and excellent people skills helped him achieve many successes, both at unit and regional level. He played a key role in identifying potential markets for business expansion and new acquisitions.
In the year 2013, his aspiration to be an entrepreneur led him to co-found Infallible Travel Concepts Pvt. Ltd., widely known as I Travel. The idea behind coming up with the start-up was to offer the Corporates and individuals an ecosystem, that manage hotels and resorts, technology based travel and accommodation desk, corporate events and leisure travels - all under one roof! Currently, he is the Managing Director of I Travel.
He believes in measurable success, and to him effort that is driven by the passion in right direction is the key to achieve excellence. His proven track record of sales and operations held him to be the key member in conceptualising growth idea for I Travel. He plays a strategic role of product acquisition, positioning and management and overall success of I Travel.
He is well travelled within India and across the globe. His passion towards exploring new destinations is the key to bring the concept of ‘itravel-2-Japan’ a unique programme of ‘Exchanging Cultural Excellence’ between India and Japan in collaboration with Nagasaki Wesleyan University.
Ravi Chandran, or RC as he is fondly called in Skål circles, is a seasoned hotelier having extensive crossfunctional experience of over 30 years in an assortment of 3-star hotels, 5-star hotels, resorts, and convention centres at various locations. The last 15 years have seen him at the helm of operations as senior management.
He has been associated with Skål International, Hyderabad Chapter, for over 16 years. He has served in various capacities on the Board as EC Member, Secretary and Vice-President in the past. He has been currently re-elected as Vice President, Skål Hyderabad for 2020-2022, besides been co-opted on the Board of Skål International India as Committee Head for CSR and FVF (2020-2022).
A soft-spoken and a passionate Skål league, he worked on the detailing and cost estimations for the winning bid to host the Skål World Congress in Hyderabad in 2017. During the Congress, he held the crucial role of coordinating the pre and post International Secretariat and was the one point contact. Furthermore, he actively participated in the pre-Congress canvassing at the Skål World Congress in Spain.
Ravi is closely associated with Hotel Restaurant Association of Telangana State (HRATS) in the capacity of Vice President for a second term; and Association of Catering Professionals as Honorary Secretary for five years. An award-winning hotelier, RC has won many accolades for his hotels he has served including the recent Best Three Star Hotel of the State award from the State Tourism Board.
A former President of the Travel Agents Society of Kashmir (TASK), which is the apex tourism body in Jammu & Kashmir, Ibrahim Siah is the Founder President of Skål International India’s Srinagar Chapter, which was launched exactly two years ago. The club, which is Skål India’s 12th, was formed with just 21 members, consisting of hoteliers, travel & tourism operators, and adventure specialists.
And while Skål may be new to the region, J&K tourism certainly is not. Ibrahim happens to be a third-generation travel operator, whose family was among the first that ventured into the business even before India won its Independence. From a young age, Ibrahim was passionate about the industry and was keen to continue the great legacy of the travel & tourism business that his forefathers had started. And so, after completing his education from Church of England School, he jumped into the fray and joined the professional trade of houseboats-running, and began to organise an array of tours to the most remote corners of the Valley.
Being closely connected with the travel trade, which was rapidly growing in J&K, Ibrahim recognised the need to march along with the times. He soon succeeded in creating a fleet of deluxe houseboats, including a six-bedroom beauty, attracting wide recognition for Shahnama Group of Houseboats & Tours.
And while the tourism and hospitality sector faces many challenges today, Ibrahim remains optimistic that if all concerned parties work with a common vision, mission, and framework for its consolidation, tourism in J&K might witness a rerun of its glory days.
To be in the travel & tourism business was never on Ajay Chhabria’s mind. And yet, fate or destiny (call it what you may) had a big part to play, when overnight…it just happened!
Until 2009, Ajay had little to do with the travel industry. He was only too happy to be part of his family business, running franchises of Monginis and DHL, which the Chhabria family owned at Sion Circle in Mumbai. His wife Hema, however, was into the travel business. She ran a company called In-Time Travels, started by her in 1994 in order to keep herself busy post-marriage.
Then, that fateful year, Ajay chanced to attend the Arabian Travel Market on behalf of his wife. And everything changed! The Chhabrias rang in a whole lot of innovations, starting by resetting their profile on Facebook. Astonishingly, the business grew 12 times, and Hema couldn’t handle this surge all by herself. So Ajay joined her, and their 12-year journey together as business partners got underway.
In 2016, the Chhabrias rechristened the company as In-Time Travels By Design LLP. It is acomprehensive travel house today, dealing with a bunch of top corporates as well as elite leisure travellers.
Ajay, who has just been installed as Committee Head – Trade Relations at Skål India, is an alumni of Don Bosco School, and Sydenham College of Commerce & Economics, Mumbai. He is an avid movie buff and likes to watch Bollywood films featuring Juhi Chawla, and Hollywood flicks with Sandra Bullock and Will Smith. He lists badminton and gymming among his main interests. And skydiving features right at the top of his bucket list.