Aradhana Khowala is a global expert and one of the most influential leaders in the travel, tourism and hospitality sectors. Her career has spanned 24+ years, five continents and more than 75 countries and traverses through the realms of luxury hospitality, regenerative tourism, health and wellness, and gender dynamics, intertwining these domains in captivating and meaningful ways. 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 organizations on sustainable 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.
An active board member, she has an impressive portfolio of non-executive board roles, currently serving as Chair of the Group Advisory Board of Red Sea Global in Saudi Arabia, the developers behind the world’s first regenerative tourism project that stretches across 90 islands and aims to have a net 30% positive environmental impact on its gargantuan site. Simultaneously, she guides to shape the landscape of AMAALA, the world largest integrated wellness family destination apart from a host of dozen other planned projects in the pipeline in Saudi Arabia.
Aradhana also serves as a Board Member and Chair of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee at Elaf Group, owned by a listed holding company – SEDCO and board member of Global Wellness Institute in USA. 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.
Beyond the boardroom, Aradhana is a startup enthusiast with a knack for identifying promising ventures committed to nurturing the next generation of trailblazers, providing not just financial backing but also invaluable mentorship and guidance. Armed with a keen eye for innovation, rich network and a deep understanding of market trends, her diverse portfolio ranges from a generative AI travel business in the USA to an Aviation start up in Mexico and mirrors her unwavering commitment to driving meaningful change as she supports budding entrepreneurs on their journey to success.
She has won multiple awards and was featured amongst the 100 most powerful people in global hospitality and the most inspirational leaders in the Middle East for three years in a row (2021 – 2022- 2023) and also the 25 most influential women in hospitality by the International Hospitality Institute. In 2021 she was featured as an Inspirational woman rethinking a sustainable tourism by City Nation Place in the UK and also won the Chairman’s Award of Global Chamber of Commerce, US for being a leader amongst peers. She won the 21st Century Icon Awards in 2017 in association with CNBC and London School of Economics in London as an Inspirational Game Changer and in 2014, she was featured as one of the 50 most Influential Next Generation leaders who will define the future of luxury by Swiss Economic magazine Bilan.
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 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 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, lobbying for closing the gender gap in women’s health and wellness in the industry or developing metrics and tools to ensure businesses robustly measure their efforts to improve diversity, equity and inclusion through a first-of-its kind portal, FiveEightTen.
An expert on the Middle Eastern, African, Indian and other new age economies, she is a systemic thinker, who conceptualises broad macroeconomic trends to identify important global growth drivers for the future of travel and wellness. An ardent and passionate advocate of regenerative growth and gender equality she advises heads of governments and ambitious leaders in the private sector on how tourism can be a force for good advancing the cause of humanity.
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 read at Cornell University in New York, Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland and INSEAD in France.
