Aradhana Khowala
CEO & Founder of Aptamind Partners
A little bit about Aradhana…
Aradhana Khowala is one of the most influential leaders in the hospitality, travel and tourism sector. Her career has spanned 23+ years, five continents and more than 75 countries. Today, she is the CEO of Aptamind Partners, a strategic consultancy, which combines hard data and decades of experience to advise governments, emerging destinations and public and private organisations on sustainable tourism development. Previously she was the Managing Director of Tourism at NEOM - the US$ 500 Billion land of the future purpose built for a sustainable and a new way of living in Saudi Arabia.
She has won multiple awards and was featured amongst the 100 most powerful people in global hospitality and the 25 most influential women in hospitality in 2022 by the International Hospitality Institute. In addition, she has an impressive portfolio of Board roles, currently serving as Chairwoman of the Group Advisory Board of Red Sea Global in Saudi Arabia, a world-first regenerative tourism project that stretches across 90 islands and aims to have a net 30% positive environmental impact on its gargantuan site. Aradhana also serves as a Board Member and Steering Committee member of World Tourism Forum Lucerne in Switzerland which is a highly focused, top level, strategic body that brings together selected leaders around the world to reflect on the big challenges facing the industry and she is also a Board Member and Chair of Nomination Committee of Elaf Group, the leisure arm of a sustainable listed holding company - SEDCO. In the past she has worked for Jones Lang LaSalle, covering UK, Benelux and Scandinavian markets, a Strategy Consulting practice in Europe and Asia as well as in Hospitality Operations in India.
Aradhana is a strong believer in and advocate for the fact that, when it is done right, tourism can be a force for positive change. This must involve tourism stakeholders taking an active rather than a passive role in all three aspects of ESG: environmental, social and governance. And while her vision for the future of tourism is ambitious, she is not afraid of the hard work or the tough conversations that are required to get there, whether that is talking about the gender gap in the Boardroom, getting to the bottom of what is turning the younger generation off a career in tourism, or developing metrics and tools to ensure hospitality businesses robustly measure their efforts to improve diversity, equity and inclusion through a first-of-its kind portal, FiveEightTen.
A resolute advocate of women's empowerment, diversity and inclusion and an activist for education as an agent of change, she spends a lot of her time engaging Presidents, Prime Ministers and Tourism Ministers lobbying for travel and tourism as a force for good but through a lens of equity, justice and mindfulness.
An accomplished public speaker with dozens of keynote engagements every year, she has spoken about gender equality on the TEDX stage and hospitality’s ‘Great Resignation’ at the Future Hospitality Summit, as well as participating in global policy discussions at WEF, United Nations and the G20. One theme runs through all her work: radical change is needed to ensure a sustainable future for an industry that has huge potential for positive social and financial impact on communities around the world.
She has qualification from Cornell University in New York, Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland and INSEAD in France.
How to connect with Aradhana and Aptamind…
Aptamind’s Website
Aptamind’s Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn Pages
Aradhana’s LinkedIn Page