“LuxeBook is the ultimate insider into living it right!” Khushnooma Kapadia has spent over two decades shaping one of the world’s most influential hospitality brands. Since joining Marriott in 2004, she has been instrumental in building brand equity, driving partnerships and collaborations, and steering media, digital, and loyalty strategies across 18 brands and over 170 hotels in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan. A decisive and action-oriented leader, she oversees a team of 100+ marketing professionals, leading with clarity, creativity, and an unwavering focus on business excellence. Her journey—spanning finance, communications, and hospitality—reflects an agile mind that thrives on reinvention and setting new benchmarks. To Kapadia, true luxury lies in “quiet restraint—being one with yourself and letting your confidence shine through.” Her most treasured heirloom is a bangle gifted by her grandmother, a reminder of timeless connection and grace. A lover of books and tea, she finds calm in simple, meaningful rituals. She acknowledges that while the “glass ceiling in luxury is cracking, it still holds in parts. Representation at leadership levels still needs more than just inclusion and visibility; it needs action,” and champions real action toward gender parity in leadership. Her definition of enduring luxury is personal time—“creating memories, shared laughter, and the joy of just being present.” Her advice to professionals: have clarity, set defined goals, and work cohesively to achieve them. | 29 “Luxury needs to be responsible. One needs to understand and value what went into something they buy.” A cherished patron and mentor to the arts, Lavina Baldota provides curatorial patronage for the promotion of arts and crafts through her platform, ‘Santati Then Now Next’. Committed to the preservation of crafts and textiles, she has been working with various artists and artisans across India for over two decades. As the custodian of the Abheraj Baldota Foundation, she carries forth the Gandhian values of trusteeship and service that form the backbone of the Foundation. With an education in textiles and fashion— her aesthetics in the arts, though rooted in preserving the authenticity of the past, and being in sync with the present—are constantly pushing design boundaries to showcase the magnificent possibilities of the future. Her art platform is thus aptly named Santati (or Continuum) Then.Now. Next. She launched her curatorial endeavour with Santati Mahatma Gandhi. Then.Now. Next, in 2019. The exhibition presented the celebration of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi through unique collaborations with multidisciplinary artists, sharing their perception of the Mahatma through the lens of their art. This exhibition opened at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, in October 2019 and travelled to various museums across the country and beyond, including Melbourne in Australia. She recently showcased the lesser known textiles of Karnataka through a survey exhibition ‘Pampa: Textiles of Karnataka’ in Hampi. What’s her most prized possession? “A 400 count khadi jamdani sari, which is so beautiful and light.” | 28 Khushnooma Kapadia Vice President – Marketing, South Asia at Marriott International Inc. Lavina Baldota Art Curator and Patron
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTcxNzM1