OYO Hotels & Homes has appointed Betsy Atkins, CEO and founder of US-based Baja Corporation, as an independent director on the company’s board of directors.
Atkins will join the board that has Industry experts like Mark Schwartz, Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs and Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asia Pacific; Munish Varma, Managing Partner, SoftBank Vision Fund; Bejul Somaia, Partner, Lightspeed India Partners Advisors, and Mohit Bhatnagar, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India Advisor, making it a powerful, diverse, and truly global combination.
As an independent member of the Board, Atkins will play a supervisory role and provide guidance to the Founder and the management on key business decisions. She will add value to the board through her strong experience on several aspects of the business, which include, corporate governance, driving tech-enabled efficiencies in business operations as well as ensuring strong business economics.
Atkins will also play a prominent role in building a culture that promotes and nurtures ‘diversity and inclusion’, an area that she is passionate about.
At Baja Corporation, Atkins has built three early-stage funds and made early seed investments in consumer and enterprise software companies. She is an expert at scaling companies through the hyper-growth stage and leading them to successful access to the public markets and acquisitions, which makes her a great addition to OYO, as the company moves towards its next phase of growth.
Atkins is currently the Chairman of the board at a private company, GlobalLogic and serves as Board Member at Wynn Resorts, SL Green Realty and Volvo.
“We are delighted to welcome Betsy to OYO’s board of directors,” said Ritesh Agarwal, Founder and Group CEO, OYO Hotels & Homes. “Betsy brings tremendous operating and governance experience that will help us continue delivering on our mission to help the billions of middle-income people around the world gain access to quality accommodations at different price points.
'As we continue to grow and to deepen our relationships with asset owners and consumers around the world, we are fortunate to have someone of Betsy’s calibre on our board of directors.”
Atkins said, ‘’OYO, with its unique asset-light business model and strong data capabilities, is creating something entirely new for the more than 3 billion middle-income travellers and city dwellers who need accommodations that meet their standards and also their budgets.
“I look forward to working with Ritesh, the management team, and my fellow board members as OYO strives to become the world’s most beloved and preferred hotel brand.”
Known worldwide as a new age young hospitality startup, OYO Hotels & Homes has attracted some of the world’s leading investors, including Airbnb Inc., SoftBank Vision Fund, Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed, and Hero Enterprise.
Ritesh Agarwal, now 26, founded OYO when he was only 19 years old. He has been lauded with several honours since starting his Company, including the Forbes 30 under 30 in Consumer Tech, ?Fortune 40 under 40 and ?the Businessworld Young Entrepreneur Award, ?and is the first resident Asian to be accepted to the Thiel Fellowship.