As ITC Hotels prepares to launch its premium luxury hotel, the ITC Narmada in Ahmedabad, key appointments in the hotel’s leadership team were announced. The 291 keys property is ITC Hotel’s 15th Luxury Collection Hotel in India and is all set to redefine luxury hospitality in Ahmedabad. The upcoming property’s leadership team will be spearheaded by Keenan McKenzie as the General Manager. Gayatri Hurra has joined the property as the PR and Marketing Manager whereas Himanshu Batra has been appointed as the Resident Manager.
Meanwhile Siddharth Banerjee has been appointed as the Unit Finance Controller whereas Ravindra Singh has joined as the Chief Engineer. Gaurav Lavina will be the Executive Chef at ITC Narmada looking after the food and beverage offerings namely planning, innovations and execution whereas Nimish Agrawal will be the Executive Housekeeper.
Keenan who will spearhead the team at ITC Narmada comes with an extensive two-decade experience with ITC Hotels. Having worked in different roles across the ITC brand of hotels including the ITC Maratha, Keenan brings along a multi-faceted experience in the hospitality sector with an extensive experience in ITC’s bouquet of luxury hotels in India. By building, positioning and strengthening ITC’s Luxury hotel brands in different markets, Keenan has carved a niche in attaining operational excellence from process to execution to delivery level.
Sharing his views about his upcoming journey with ITC Narmada in Ahmedabad, Keenan said, “Ahmedabad is a unique and promising market. In fact, it is an eclectic blend of centuries-old heritage, culture and traditions and modernity. Ahmedabad draws beautiful contrasts by being the country’s first UNESCO World Heritage City and a gateway to the modern world being a thriving global business hub located in close proximity with India’s first International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at GIFT City in Gandhinagar. Adding one more start to my journey with ITC Hotels, I look forward to the opportunity of launching one of the most prestigious properties of ITC Hotels and strengthening the position of this hotel in the value-driven market of Ahmedabad amidst the city’s growing hospitality sector.”
Gayatri Hurra will join the team of ITC Narmada will spearhead the brand positioning, marketing and PR of the hotel. With her rich and diverse experience spanning over 17 years in the hospitality, aviation, luxury, lifestyle in marketing communications and public relations, Gayatri is an experienced and a result-oriented Marketing and PR professional with a demonstrated history excelling in the Luxury hospitality sector over a decade.
Prior to joining ITC Hotels, Gayatri has worked with International Hotel chains of repute. She has successfully steered the establishment and strengthening the Marketing vertical for iconic properties of Marriott International and Hyatt Hotels during their pre-opening as well as operational stages in Ahmedabad. Gayatri develops sound and relevant marketing strategies and meticulously executes them, which aids sales verticals achieve their revenue goals and also steers the financial performance of the department.
Siddhartha Banerjee, the Unit Finance Controller at ITC Narmada has spent 12 years in the hospitality and services sector. Siddhartha will assume a pivotal role consolidating accounts of ITC Narmada, budgeting the hotel operations, new projects, taxation, and other aspects of the hotel financing. A result driven professional with rich and comprehensive experience in financial management, consolidation of financial statements, budgeting, management accountancy, general administration, project management, Siddhartha has successfully taken over different roles in ITC Limited across its luxury hotel brands including ITC Grand Central, Mumbai, ITC Mughal in Agra, and ITC Green Centre in Gurgaon, among others.
Ravindra Singh will directly oversee operations that will elevate the guest experience by upholding the responsible luxury for which ITC hotels hold a repute known for. For three decades, he has worked in diverse roles for project execution and operations in different hotel brands. After the projects department in IHCL, he moved to the operations team in IHCL in the year 2000. In 2006 left IHCL and joined the ITC hotels division at ITC Mughal, Agra and later worked with ITC Grand Central Mumbai and ITC Gardenia in Bengaluru. With a strong eye for detail, optimization, budget management and communications, Ravindra will spearhead and lead the team as it strives to continuously enhance the guest experience.
A passionate and seasoned culinary artist, Chef Gaurav brings a well-rounded experience of nearly two decades wherein he has showcased his cooking expertise at various locations across the nation. His fascination for deriving exquisite flavours out of basic ingredients and creating delectable dishes with minimalist aesthetics while preserving their authenticity has gained him recognition as a chef who blends artistry and hearty cooking. Being a firm believer in rooting its ethos from the soil, sustainable sourcing and celebrating indigenous cooking techniques, he has seamlessly woven his belief into food philosophy. A flavour of some of the awards and accolades restaurants under his culinary guidance have won, at Yi Jing, Dakshin, Pavilion and Peshwari.
Nimish will directly oversee the finesse in housekeeping not just to ensure the highest standard of hygiene but building an ambience that overall elevates the guest’s stay experience at the property. Using his astute approach with a stride for perfection, Nimish will spearhead the designing of processes, and selecting the best bouquet of service offerings to the guests at ITC Narmada, meeting the ITC promise of hospitality and taking the city’s benchmark of luxury a notch above.
