Accor has appointed Raheel Ahmad as Director of Food & Beverage, South Asia, in a move that bolsters the French hospitality major’s regional leadership bench at a moment when culinary differentiation is becoming a defining commercial battleground in premium hotels across India and its neighbouring markets.
In the role, Ahmad will lead the strategic direction of Accor’s food and beverage operations across the region, overseeing guest experience design, operational consistency, revenue growth and brand differentiation across the group’s South Asia portfolio. His remit extends to lifestyle dining, weddings and social celebrations, talent development, partnerships and service standards across the hotels Accor operates in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Ahmad brings more than 25 years of hospitality experience, with a professional footprint that spans 650 hotels, 24 brands and 22 countries. His career has straddled both kitchen and commercial leadership, combining culinary craft with strategic food and beverage management across markets at varying stages of maturity.
He joins Accor from Marriott International, where he was most recently Corporate Culinary Director for Asia Pacific Excluding China, based in Singapore. In that role he sat within Marriott’s senior regional food and beverage leadership team and oversaw culinary strategy across one of the group’s largest geographies. He is also a past recipient of the Marriott Global Chef of the Year award.
Ahmad’s regional exposure cuts across Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, Vietnam and India – a breadth that has shaped his approach to translating local culinary heritage into commercially scalable hotel dining concepts. Much of his work at Marriott centred on developing and rolling out brand-led restaurant concepts, building consistency across multi-market portfolios while adapting menus and service to local guest expectations.
A significant strand of his earlier work has involved sharpening culinary positioning through global partnerships. Ahmad has worked with platforms including the Michelin Guide and The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, and has collaborated with internationally recognised chefs to deliver dining experiences across Asia Pacific hotels. These partnerships have become a strategic lever for upscale and luxury hotels seeking to compete with the rising standalone fine-dining scene in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bangkok and Singapore.
Sustainability is the other pillar of his professional record. Ahmad has championed initiatives around responsible sourcing, food waste reduction and plant-based innovation, embedding conscious consumption into operational F&B strategy rather than treating it as a marketing layer. He has also been involved in mentoring hospitality talent and supporting culinary capability-building programmes across the markets he has operated in.
His appointment lands at a pivotal phase for Accor in South Asia. The group, led regionally by Chief Executive Officer Ranju Alex, currently operates more than 70 hotels in the region with over 30 in the pipeline, and is targeting growth from around 71 hotels in India to 300 by 2030 under its recalibrated partnership with InterGlobe Enterprises. Across Asia more broadly, Accor has over 230 hotels in development, representing close to 60,000 keys. Recent and upcoming additions to its India footprint include Fairmont Mumbai, Raffles Jaipur, Fairmont Agra, Raffles Ranthambore, Sofitel Legend Sukh Bagh Jaipur, Sofitel Rishikesh and Mercure properties in Bhubaneswar and Siliguri.
For Accor, food and beverage is increasingly central to that growth narrative. With the group operating around 10,000 food and beverage venues globally, regional F&B leadership has shifted from a support function to a commercial pillar in its own right – particularly as Indian and South Asian guests gravitate towards experience-led travel, where the restaurant offering often shapes the hotel choice rather than the other way around.
Commenting on the appointment, Ranju Alex, Chief Executive Officer, South Asia, Accor, said, “We are pleased to welcome Raheel Ahmad to Accor. His deep understanding of strategic planning, extensive expertise in the food and beverage space, and strong focus on financial performance make him a valuable addition to our leadership team. Raheel brings with him a proven track record of driving sustained revenue growth, improving margins, enhancing operational efficiencies, and creating differentiated guest experiences across diverse hospitality environments. His ability to balance innovation with commercial performance, while building high-performing teams and strengthening brand positioning, will be instrumental in further elevating our F&B ecosystem across South Asia.”
Outside work, Ahmad is a keen traveller and follows cricket, and tracks emerging global trends shaping hospitality and culinary spaces. With South Asia firmly established as one of Accor’s highest-priority growth markets, his appointment signals a deliberate sharpening of the group’s food and beverage proposition at a point when regional competition for premium guests is intensifying.
