The Leela Palaces, Hotels & Resorts appoints Gautam Srivastava as VP–HR

The Leela Palaces Hotels and Resorts has appointed Gautam Srivastava as the vice president – corporate HR. In this role, Srivastava will lead the people processes at the Company and focus on automating and digitising them for better productivity. Srivastava report directly to the CEO. The Company will also focus on curating excellent customer experiences and compassionate people policies.

Prior to joining The Leela, Srivastava was vice president & head – talent management, performance & rewards, at HDFC ERGO General Insurance. He has spent close to a decade in the insurance industry and successfully led the transformation of key HR processes– HR digitalisation (PMS, R&R, HRMS, wellness), organisation talent review and talent development. He has also successfully lead harmonisation of HR processes, policies and culture during M&A.

Srivastava brings with him over two decades of diversified experience in hospitality, ITeS, banking and insurance domains. He started his career with ITC Hotels as an operations management trainee, where he got the exposure to work across operations before transitioning to work in other industries. With his appointment at The Leela, he has found his true calling and says, his life has come a full circle.

“My immediate priorities include developing HR strategy to provide people with the capability to propel the organisation’s ambitious growth plans in the coming years.
Building a culture of meritocracy, creating a strong employer brand and transforming employee experience by leveraging technology are the key pivots of my strategy,” shares Srivastava with HRKatha.

A BSc graduate in computers, from Osmania University, Srivastava headed the L&D team in the startup phase at Convergys, from 2001 to 2007. He enabled business expansion to 10,000+ employees in India, and successfully led client partnerships. He then moved to HSBC Service Delivery from 2007 to 2011, to lead their L&D, talent management, OD & recruitment teams. He was instrumental in setting up the learning academy and recruitment shared services model, besides leading several global HR transformation projects. Post this he was with Barclays Shared Services, heading talent acquisition and setting up their of wealth/ investment vertical, for which he hired 3000+ people in a year.

Though the hospitality sector is not in great shape today, Srivastava, who is a hotel management graduate from the Institute of Hotel Management, predicts that the industry will bounce back in another two years.