The Indian Hotels Company Limited recently announced the appointment of Urban Denk as Senior Vice President, Food & Beverage; Sarabjeet Singh as Head of IHCL’s new brand, Expressions, and Pankaj Sampat as Area Director, Sri Lanka, Maldives & Malaysia & Head, Taj Asia Limited (TAL) and Taj Safaris Limited (TSL).
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Chef Denk will be instrumental in shaping the Food & Beverage philosophy for IHCL. He is an accomplished culinary expert with over three decades of global experience from across Europe, Middle East and Africa. He is fluent in German, English, French and Dutch. Over the course of his career, he has managed the opening of more than 200 hotels and conference centres world over and has worked with organisations such as Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, SAS International Hotels and Hilton International to name a few. Chef Denk comes from Steigenberger Hotels and Resorts, where he was Director of Culinary Innovations and Development.
Sarabjeet Singh will head IHCL’s new brand, Expressions, which comprises its service retail portfolio. He will provide leadership for businesses of The Chambers, Taj Khazana, Jiva and the Company’s signature restaurants. Sarabjeet is a seasoned hotelier and his association with IHCL spans over three decades. In his earlier stint, he was Area Director, Sri Lanka, Maldives & Malaysia and Director on the board of TAL Lanka Hotels PLC & TAL Maldives Resorts Private Limited. Sarabjeet has been General Manager of some of Taj’s most iconic hotels, including Taj Palace, New Delhi, Taj Krishna, Hyderabad and Taj Samudra, Colombo. He was also the Director – Operations for TAJ GVK hotels.
Pankaj Sampat launched and positioned the new Taj Santacruz, Mumbai when he was the General Manager of the hotel. Prior to that he was the General Manager at Vivanta President. He joined IHCL in 1993 at The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai. Over the years, he has held multiple roles in the hotel’s Food & Beverage function. Whilst managing his new role, Pankaj will also additionally continue to carry out his responsibility as Center of Excellence (COE) lead for Food & Beverage Concepts.