Rahul Raghuwanshi is a new generation entrepreneur. He has been in the real estate and the hospitality industry for almost 24 years as a top management team member with Dubai Properties Group/Dubai Holding, one of the largest real estate companies in the region, and with Ernst & Young, one of the largest Global Accounting and Advisory firm.

In the past 24 years, Rahul has conceptualized and set up 8 large-scale companies from scratch for Real Estate Development, Hospitality Asset Development and Management, Property & Facility Management, Mall & Retail Management, Financial Services and an Education Asset Portfolio Company. Rahul has an in-depth understanding of the critical business drivers such as strategic planning, business operations, corporate finance, long term organization development, which includes building brand and setting up of delivery frameworks based on a long-term strategic, business and operational plan.

Rahul has worked on some of the world’s largest master-planned projects across the GCC and India. He has been involved in various stages of the real estate cycle in conceptualization, viability analysis, funding & investment management, project & construction management and post-construction operations of over 200 million square feet of master-planned developments, 30,000 residential units, 1.5 million square feet of retail and 2.7 million square feet of commercial space. The key projects included Jumeirah Beach Residence, Business Bay, Culture Village, The Villa, The Executive Towers, Mirdiff, Al Khail Gate, Bay Square, Al Waha Villas, Layan community, etc.

Abdullah has over 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry, with hands-on experience in Assets Management, Hotel Operations, Green Field Developments, Project Management, Budget planning, Sales and Marketing. He obtained his High Diploma in Hotel & Restaurant Management from the leading institute called La Salle College in Montreal, Canada, and continued achieving his bachelor’s degree of Applied Management in Hospitality & Tourism from the University of New Brunswick, in Saint John, Canada.

Prior to joining Elaf Group of Companies, he had worked with various hotels companies in Jeddah and Madinah being part of Marriot International, Accor Hotel and ARAC (Arab Resort Areas Company) from 1997 up to 2015, where he held diverse positions as General Manager, Director of Hotels & Resorts, and finally took his first role as CEO of ARAC in 2012.

He joined Elaf Group of Companies in 2015 as Vice President, where he is managing the assets on behalf of the owners and also operating these assets comprises of 14 hotels in the western region of the Kingdom as head of Elaf Hotels Company ranging from Luxury to 3-stared properties. A year after his joining Abdullah was given the additional responsibility for managing the other two divisions of Elaf Hajj & Umrah, and Elaf Travel & Tours within Elaf Group. Later last year his role was further amplified by adding all the supporting department such as IT, Procurement, HR, and & Legal departments to his role. We have found Abdullah having a perfect fusion of International exposure, C-level experience while having the local roots.

Ehtisham Waris is the Head of Operations and Development, with Warifat (a JV of Eaglewing and Jabal Omar Development Company in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) Hospitality Company.

Having completed his Master Degree in Business Administration & Master’s in Hospitality Management from University of Sydney, Australia in 1993 and 1995 respectively, Ehtisham started his career with IHG Hotel Group as Management Trainee in Food in Beverage department in 1995 and stayed with group for 6 years. He has worked around 4 continents in his 24 years of hospitality experience working through supervisory and managerial positions.

Ehtisham during his carrier has managed Food and Beverage perpetration, service and Rooms Division departments in most of the leading hotel chains within Europe and Asia. In one of his previous roles he headed the Corporate Operations Department as Director of Operations for Best Western International based in Bangkok responsible for 475 hotels operation and new development within Asia and Middle East. He is well experienced and vast experience in opening new projects, takeover and converting operating hotels of types and categories.In his current role, Ehtisham is responsible for delivering the operational standardization and profitability, by introducing best industry practices, processes and standard.

Ankur has over 8 years of experience in the Hospitality Real Estate Advisory, Feasibility Finance, Development and Asset Management with a demonstrated history of working in the industry across South Asia and the MENA region. He possesses experience of working with multiple stakeholders from a real estate asset life-cycle standpoint namely; Hotel brand (Hyatt Hotels), Consulting & Advisory (Colliers International MENA) and Owners Representation (Eaglewing Group)

In his last assignment, Ankur was part of Colliers International’s Hotel Advisory & Asset Management function based in Dubai, UAE, with a focus on Asset Management. He worked on Asset Management assignments and was actively managing over 1,800 branded hotel keys across Saudi Arabia and UAE. Some of the hotels he managed were part of renowned hotel brands such as Radisson Hotel Group and Millennium & Copthorne Hotels.

Mayank is a Project Management professional with extensive experience spanning over 11 years in Real Estate Development, which incudes Construction Management, Design and Development, Procurement/Material Management, Site Administration and financial management . Mayank posses a post graduate degree in Construction Management from NICMAR, India and in past he has been associated with the leading Project Management Consultancy industry since 2008 working with Multinational firms in the Indian sub continent like Cushman & Wakefield and JLL. His long exposure to the project management domain has resulted in good understanding from the Concept to Completion of various real estate projects comprising of mixed use development, Hotel, township development, University , Commercial retails and office spaces

Mayank has played Pivotal role in leading projects of Green field and Interior fit out nature and successfully delivering the projects for reputed clients like Honeywell, Luxottica, Accenture, TCL, NMIMS, Marriott .

Nemanja is 15+ years experienced Architect (Master Degree in Architecture) with a strong background and a long line of successful project deliveries. Professional with excellent organizational and communicational skills and a true team player. Always motivated by new challenges and able to perform best under pressure. Responsibility, persistence, and determination together with the ability to oversee the ‘big picture’ and think outside of the box allow him to manage problems efficiently and successfully.

He has worked on many different positions so far and he is always open to cooperation with people from various cultural backgrounds. Nemanja is adaptable to various working conditions and in addition to that, very flexible and ambitious – as someone who is always open for further learning and progressing. He has both, Consultancy and Contracting experience. His portfolio includes hospitality, residential, commercial and mix-use projects. He is experienced in design from Concept design through detail design to IFC and has extensive technical knowledge and a strong understanding of international design standards, excellent communication, and team management skills. He provides effective leadership to the team, professionalism to develop the work.

Murtaza is a finance professional with experience spanning over 4 years in Financial Accounting and Analysis of business processes. A young Chartered Accountant along with a Masters degree in Commerce, he is also an associate member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (Central Region and Dubai Chapter).

Murtaza is currently posted in Jeddah and associated with the Jabal Omar Development in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, working as a Financial Analyst on the hotels Financial Performance and Asset Management portfolio. He reviews KPI’s and consolidates financial data from the trading assets viz. Hyatt Regency, Hilton Suites, Conrad, Marriott, Hilton Convention, in Jabal Omar for monthly reporting to JODC and the BOD. Murtaza also actively participates with the Business Review Sessions conducted with the Hotels.

Azmatullah has been in hotel industry for over 22 years with the experience of administration, operation together with the hotel accounting key areas, and ,is specialized in implementation, designing and monitoring of Income Audit, Accounts Payable, Cost Control, Taxation management & Auditing, Fixed Asset Accounting and Financial Accounting with the time efficiency and systematic working methodology.

His experience has led him to specialize increasingly in the management of complex multi-cultural tasks and their staffs at international levels. He has experience in professional accounting within the tight financial disciplines imposed by ambitious budgets which he has helped to control in all the best ways as per every company policy and procedures, methodical administration to deadlines and the application of modern leadership methods (through staff motivation and involvement in both decision-making and target-setting, clarity in communication, and easy personal inter-relations). Familiarized with the commercial world, the culture of government, and Arab regulations.