Meet The Team

Deepika Rao

Ms. Deepika Rao has been appointed as Managing Director and Chief Executive officer at Ginger Hotels (Roots Corporation Ltd.).

Deepika started her career with Tata Motors in 2000. Having completed the Tata Administrative Services (TAS) leadership programme, she has had several stints across functions in various Tata Group companies for the last 18 years. She has moved to her current role from her previous position as Vice President, Asset Management at IHCL, where she was responsible for leading solutions for margin enhancement at the company. She has also served as interim CEO for Ginger Hotels in 2015 for a short period.

Tarun Sathya Lakhanpal

Tarun is responsible for Sales, Marketing, Electronic Distribution and Revenue Management for Ginger Hotels.

Tarun's journey into hospitality started with Best Western Hotels before moving as a Management Trainee to Jaypee Hotels. He later joined Nikko Hotels as their first Revenue Manager in India before moving on to lead the revenue management, social media and loyalty strategy for Lemon Tree Hotels. His last assignment was as Vice President, Revenue Management & Electronic Marketing at Royal Orchid Hotels, based in Bangalore. Tarun has studied Revenue Management & Dynamic Pricing  and Quantitative Data Analytics and its Application in Business & Marketing at IIM Ahmedabad. He has certification in Advanced Hospitality Revenue Management - Pricing & Demand Strategies from Cornell University School of Hotel Management. Tarun also has certification in Digital Marketing from Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

Tarun has represented the industry at various professional platforms and shared experiences at Eye For Travel, Travel Distribution Summit (Singapore, India), Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and International Conference on Travel Technology (ICTT).

Sanjay Arora

Mr. Sanjay Arora joins us as Head - Finance and shall be responsible for the Finance and Procurement functions, in addition he shall also oversee the Legal function.He has over 25 years of varied experience in the Finance domain and has handled multiple portfolios of Finance, Accounts, Materials and the IT function as the Financial Controller in various Hotels with reputed companies such as Oberoi Hotels and Resorts, Shangri-La Hotels and Radisson Hotels. Apart from heading Hotel Finance his experience has also included Hotel Opening, an International Hotel exposure, Legal and Projects.

In his last role as ED and VP Finance of the MBD Group, he was heading the Hospitality Division and Corporate Finance Functions. This included Hotel Owning and Management companies of two Radisson Blu Hotels, Malls, Food Courts, Hotel Project, various other companies/entities owning Real Estate and a Charitable Trust. He was also ED and VP Finance for a Joint Venture Company of the MBD Group with a leading foreign Hospitality Company. He oversaw the legal function and managed the international ventures of the Group.

Manish Kumar

Manish has over 16 years of experience and has worked across various brands and hotels such as The Oberoi New Delhi, The Grand Intercontinental, Taj Palace New Delhi, Vivanta Surajkund and Ambassador Hotel New Delhi.

He holds a bachelor's degree in Hotel Management from IHM Bhopal. His other qualifications include a bachelor's degree in Tourism Studies from IGNOU as well as a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration with specialization in Human Resources from the Symbiosis Institute of Distance Learning.

In his new role, Manish will report to Ms. Deepika Rao, MD & CEO, and will be responsible for Operations at Ginger hotels. His role will focus on driving operational efficiencies and customer experience in line with the re-imagined brand ethos of Ginger. He will also be responsible for successfully on-boarding new hotels.

Ajit Dias

Ajit heads Human Resources for Roots Corporation Limited (Ginger Hotels) and is responsible to align and drive the Human Resources and business objectives, to provide a competitive and sustainable HR framework for the organization. Ajit has been associated with the Taj Group of Hotels since 2003, in various capacities of the Human Resources function. Ajit is a Strategic Human Resources Leader with skills and experience across functions. Strong people connect and passionate about employee engagement and development. He possesses extensive training experience, engaging with business stakeholders to access capability gaps and structure talent development needs. He has designed and delivered young talent management solutions to build and harness the talent pipeline. He has expertise in launching a new brand, with innovative learning interventions and hands on experience in structuring pre-opening initiatives for hotels.   Ajit graduated from IHM Kolkata and has completed his post-graduation in Human Resources from XLRI Jamshedpur. He has 19 years of work experience. He began his career with The Oberoi Group of Hotels, as a Management Trainee and through the course of his tenure, he rose progressively leading teams in Food & Beverage and Front Office Operations. He joined the Taj Group of Hotels in Corporate Learning & Development.

Azeez Narain

Azeez heads the Buiness Development & Strategy for Ginger Hotels (Roots Corporation Ltd..)

He is a Tata Administrative Service (TAS) officer and his experience spans across the development of hotel opportunities for business hotels, exotic palaces and idyllic resorts.In his previous stint, he was responsible for driving IHCL's growth efforts in Middle-East Asia and North India. In addition to new hotels, Azeez has also driven upgradation programs for properties and has led design concepts for specialty restaurants, wellness areas and themed suites. He has also played an important role in the roll-out of IHCL's first prototype-based upscale hotel in the form of Gateway IT Expressway Chennai and introduced the company to new markets like Tirupati, Alwar and Wayanad, amongst others. 

Azeez holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the Delhi College of Engineering and a MBA degree from the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University.