Diwan Gautam Anand

Industry Stalwart & Former Executive Vice President
ITC Hotels
Diwan Gautam Anand is an industry stalwart who began his journey with ITC in 1980 as a management trainee. He was instrumental in the commissioning of ITC Kakatiya, Hyderabad, a property which he headed as General Manager for five years. Till recently, as Executive Vice President, ITC Hotels, he oversaw quality benchmarking, project completion and pre-opening operations with a defined allegiance to quality. A member of the Divisional Management Committee at ITC Hotels, Gautam defined concepts for new hotel projects (Greenfield & Brownfield) and successfully launched ITC Gardenia, Bengaluru, ITC Grand Chola, Chennai, WelcomHotel Jodhpur, and more recently ITC Grand Bharat, Gurgaon, New Delhi Capital Region.

He is the overseeing Editor of the F&B magazine WelcomZest and has established new food & beverage brands like Ottimo, Royal Vega, The India Room, Delhi Pavilion, Fabelle Chocolate boutiques, Yi Jing, Sholla, Begum’s, the Great Market Pavilion etc. Gautam is the founding Vice President of the Cuisine Society of India, advisor to the Experience India Society and also the Founding Trustee of the Cuisine India Foundation.

A guiding light in the public-private partnership sector, he has enabled Indian Cuisine and experiences at Los Angeles, New York, Frankfurt, Berlin, and St Petersburg as well as at the World Economic Forum at Davos. He also spearheaded a multi-chain initiative at ‘Make in India’ forums at Hanover, Germany and Mumbai.

In recognition of his considerable and valuable contribution to the hospitality industry, he has been elected as a ‘Fellow of IIHM’ and is on the Advisory Board for the IIHM Young Chef Olympiad Competition. He is a recipient of the International Hospitality Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding contribution to the field of hospitality.

He is currently co-authoring a book on the Collection of India’s heirloom recipes/stories, a topic on which he has contributed to UpperCrust – India’s Finest Food & Wine Magazine, where he has been recognised as amongst the top 20 food writers.

Gautam attended Delhi’s Modern School, graduated with honours in history from St. Stephen’s College and is an alumnus of Cornell University.