 "Who is Raymond Bickson? Taj Hotel group MD resigns after 11 years")
The Tata group’s hospitality arm Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) on Thursday said its managing director and CEO Raymond Bickson had resigned and would step down from the post on 31 August, after serving for over a decade.Bickson’s retirement comes just a year into his renewed five-year tenure as IHCL CEO.
In an announcement given to the BSE, IHCL said that Bickson, 59 and born in Hawaii, had “…expressed a desire to resign from the services of the Company and pursue his professional interests elsewhere.”
Bickson will be replaced by Rakesh K Sarna, who was the executive vice president, group president - Americas, of Hyatt Hotels Corporation. Sarna will take over the job effective 1 September.
Bickson began his journey with the company when he took over the top job in July 2003 and his primary mandate was to take the Taj hotel brand global. He oversaw the operations of all premium properties and played a key role in the expansion and development of hotels globally.
Bickson Under his leadership, the Economic Times reports, the Taj group launched new brands like the affordable Ginger and Gateway chains and Vivanta by Taj. The group also acquired several overseas hotels including The Pierre in New York City, the W Hotel in Sydney and the Ritz-Carlton in Boston.
According to the Business Standard, Bickson’s annual commission was Rs 2 crore in FY14 even as the company incurred a loss of Rs 590.50 crore on a standalone basis.As per the term of his renewed contract, Bickson’s perks and salary were lowered to about Rs 8.3 crore while his commission went up to Rs 10.4 crore.
The Hindu BusinessLine reports that when Bickson joined IHCL, the group had a room inventory of 7,942 rooms in 62 hotels. At the end of his tenure, that number stands at 15,690 rooms in 127 hotels. However, the company has seen its losses grow too.In FY14, IHCL’s losses rose 113 pecent to Rs 590 crore from Rs 277 crore the previous year, according to BS.
The HBL article further adds that Bickson used to use Tata Motors’ car models to explain the various Taj group brands - “A Ginger would be a Nano, a Gateway would be the Indica, a Vivanta would be a Sumo and if you go to luxury, it would be Jaguar Land Rover.
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