TOURISM INDIA MARCH 2019 TOURISM INDIA FEBRUARY 2019 | Page 16

N E W S / NAT I O NA L
PRIYANKA MARY FRANCIS IAS SANJAY KAUSHIK
New Director, Karnataka Tourism appointed as Regional Director -
Operations, South Asia of Radisson
Hotel Group
Ms. Priyanka Mary Francis IAS has
been appointed as the new Director of
Tourism in Karnataka, in place of Mr. B.
Ramu IAS.
Prior to this Ms. Priyanka was served as
the District Collector of Uduppi District
in Karnataka, a post which she handled
with great diligence and responsibility.
Her name was hit headline when
Priyanka and her colleague Assistant
Commissioner Shilpa Nag IAS were
attacked by people from the sand mafia
during a mid night raid operation in
Kundapur taluk, Karnataka.
Ms. Priyanka a 2009 batch Indian
Administrative Service officer of
Karnataka cadre started her civil service
carrier as Assistant Commissioner of
Belgaum and later in 2012 she was
promoted as Commissioner of Belgaum
City Corporation and became the first
lady Commissioner. She took charge
as CEO of Udupi Zilla Panchayat from
November 17, 2015 and later promoted
as the Deputy Commissioner and
District Collector of Udupi District on
February 23, 2017. Priyanka also took
several initiatives to promote tourism
Uduppi district as a well known beach
and hill destination in Karnataka.
Ms. Priyanka, a B.Tech (Electronics
Instrumentation) graduate, hailing from
Trivandrum, quit her job in ISRO in 2008
to pursue her dreams of becoming an
IAS officer. A year later she cracked the
IAS exams by securing the 54th rank.
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Tourism India February 2019
Mr. Sanjay Kaushik has joined as
Regional Director - Operations,
South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group
based Gurgaon, Haryana.
Prior to this Mr. Sanjay was heading
the operations of the Raviz Hotels
& Resorts in Kerala. Mr. Sanjay, a
seasoned hotelier had moved to
Raviz Hotels & Resorts as Chief
Operating Officer in June 2018,
when he was looking after the
operations of Western India region
of InterContinental Hotel Group,
where he was the Area General
Manager, West India and Crowne
Plaza Ahamedabad.
Sanjay Kaushik brings in 23 years
of experience in hotel industry.
He holds a proven track record
in business turn around plans,
operations efficiency and marketing
strategies. Sanjay Kaushik started
out as a professional Judo Player
(Black Belt) with Central Industrial
Security Forces (CISF) during
1990-95 and in 1996, he switched
over and started his career in
the hospitality industry with ITC
Maurya New Delhi. Later years he
worked at InterContinental Eros,
New Delhi, Country Inn & Suites
by Calrson,Sahibabad and Crowne
Plaza New Delhi. He joined as the
General Manager of Radisson Blu
Rudrapur, Uttakhand in December