Cyrus Madan

I was till recently, Senior Vice-President for Business Development (SVP_BD) with Lemon Tree Hotels Limited. In a career spanning 25+ years so far, I have been in Hotels for almost all of it barring a short stint with Ge (in their BPO arm GENPACT as a behavioral trainer).

The bulk of my career so far has been with Lemon Tree Hotels, which I joined as its 8th employee, in 2003 as a Deputy General Manager at the corporate office. Lemon Tree Hotels, was then a start-up and over the years, has become one of India's largest hotel brands and definitely the biggest in the mid market. I had the opportunity to grow with the company and acquired skills in:

1.Hotel Operations

2. Training

3. Creating and Operationalizing mid-market Hotel brands, and working on their cost structures and roll-outs

4. Land acquisitions and hotel acquisitions

5. Feasibility studies and management contracts

In my role as Head of Business Development for Lemon Tree Hotels, in addition to Hotel acquisitions, I was responsible for growing the Asset Light Model for Lemon Tree Hotels, (the managed hotels portfolio called Carnation Hotels, for which I was the Chief Operating Officer). Over a span of 8 years I have individually sourced and contracted 60+ hotel projects across, Lemon Tree Hotels' 2,3, 4 and 5 star brands. The projects, cumulatively, totaled to approximately 4500 keys. This makes me very familiar with management contract negotiations, Owner relationship management, asset management and managed hotel operations. During my tenure as COO for Carnation Hotels, I was able to take the Brands International, with management contracts negotiated and signed for Dubai, Nepal and Bhutan.

In addition to the management contract business, I have also worked on the acquisitions side of the business, for many opportunities which were offered to the company, which included purchase/ lease of land for hotels, acquisition of running hotels. This has enriched my knowledge of hotel "buy-side" P&Ls and feasibilities.

I have pre-opened multiple hotel projects (20+) pan India and one in Dubai. I have a good user knowledge of hotel design and space planning, which helps me work with, Hotel Owners, Architects and space planners, to plan and in some cases find viable acceptable solutions, for all concerned. Having opened multiple hotels, also makes me very aware of the needs of a hotel's pre-opening activity - sequencing and pre-opening budgeting and other activities related to the opening of hotels.