BITB Honours Celebrating Legacy of Excellence

In this segment, BITB honored two remarkable individuals whose legacy is unbeatable. The first BITB Honour was for a true pioneer who was known for his humility and generosity. A true gentleman, a visionary,  none other than Dr. Ramesh Kapur, the owner founder of Radisson Blu at Delhi Airport.

A short-service Army Major, Habib Rehman, legend unto himself, who oversaw much of the transformation at ITC hotels, passed on a few months ago. He scaled the heights in hospitality and tourism, alongside a time when our industry was growing.

Dr. Ramesh KAPUR

Born on Sep 27, 1940 in Gujarat (now part of Pakistan), Dr. Ramesh Kapur was a self-motivated, hard-working, passionate, and self-made man, with a zeal for life and constant learning who never lost touch with his humble roots.

As a young boy, he moved during Partition, with his family, leaving behind everything, and having lost his father at a very young age, he not only had to face financial challenges but also a lack of guidance. 

He constantly excelled in his self-charted journey, starting with his 

DAV School, Daryaganj, Delhi;  

B.E. Civil from UVCE, Bangalore, 

MS from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and 

Ph. D. from IIT Roorkee.  

In 1972, Dr. Kapur along with a few other colleagues at CSRI, started his new journey as a Promoter Director of United Technical Pvt. Ltd., later known as Unitech Limited. He continued to nurture and grow the company for almost 34 years, when he took the painful decision to part ways in 2006.  

During his tenure in Unitech, the Company grew from its small pile foundation operations to diversify into domains ranging from domestic and international Construction Projects, Exports, Information Technology, HT Power Lines, Real Estate Development, Amusement Parks, Hotels & Restaurants and Education.

Post Unitech, Dr. Kapur focused exclusively on managing & growing his family group companies with a portfolio of Hotels, Restaurants, Real-estate, and Education assets. 

Radisson was then a new hotel brand in South Asia, was successfully introduced by him with the Radisson Hotel Delhi (now known as Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel Delhi) which continues as the group’s flagship hotel.  

His continuing legacies in hospitality include the Radisson Blu Plaza Delhi, Radisson Varanasi, The Great Kabab Factory (TGKF), and the International Institute of Management Technology (later known as Vedatya), among others.

Always hungry for new challenges, he also helped steer the growth of Carlson brands (Radisson, Country Inns & Suites, Park Plaza, etc.) in India in his capacity as Chairman of Carlson Hotels India Nepal Sales & Marketing (CHINSAM). 

He contributed much to various profession bodies such as CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, PHD Chamber of Commerce, and Construction Industry Development Council. 

Strong believer in giving back to society, he contributed to various social causes in whatever way he could. 

What stood out in him was his innate humility, never saying no, always having a willing ear, to one and all. Exceptionally gracious, spontaneous, he remained beloved to all he met.  

Dr. Kapur left us for his final journey on Aug 24, 2024 leaving behind a huge legacy. 

Which is being carried so faithfully and delightfully by his son, Nitin Kapur, who now heads the family business.

Nitin Kapur

It’s an absolute honor, an absolute privilege to be here amongst this august gathering. Thank you for the recognition for dad. His brief life history has already been shared, so I won’t go into it again. But I’d like to thank all of you for this felicitation on his behalf, on behalf of the family, and on behalf of this hotel. This is where the journey began for Radisson Hotels in India in South Asia. 

It’ll suffice to say that he leaves a huge void in our hearts. It’s emotional for me because we are approaching one year of his death anniversary. But he also additionally leaves behind an incredible legacy, and I’m proud to take that forward.

Thank you all for being here today in celebrating his many achievements and his life that he lived large.

K.B Kachru

It’s indeed a privilege to be part of the event here. We are all remembering what he was, what he did from the time I’ve known him. Dr. Kapur was somebody to us who made us. And I feel really proud of saying this, when we talk about global brands; we talk about, how we are so big. We’re really not that big unless people trust us. We had no hotel in India. Dr. Kapur was on a mission to shortlist some brands on behalf of his company. And his partners had shortlisted a few. So, when I met him for the first time through a common friend, he told me we’ve already shortlisted a hotel, a brand for this hotel. So, I was thinking to myself, you know, they have already shortlisted, why is he meeting me? But in the next few days, I saw something really different in what he was trying to achieve. He said, KB, I’m looking for somebody who can understand our aspirations, aspirations of the company, who can understand our emotions, who can feel our pain.

We met a few times, and then one day, one call from him was, KB, can you fly down to Delhi? I was then in Singapore, I came. He said, I’m giving you something which is really a new ground for us. We are diversifying. I’ve convinced my partners that we must diversify and get into hospitality. I’m betting, and I can tell you one thing, had he not been there, had he not trusted us, had he not supported us, probably what you heard today, a company with 204 hotels, we wouldn’t have been here.

It was really a privilege for me to have worked with him. To the extent when we had just three or four hotels, we didn’t have enough marketing funds. Some of my colleagues, who were there with me at that time, they used to say, we need to do this, we need to grow. He said since I am part of Radisson now, it’s my responsibility to see what we can do to build a brand.

One owner I have seen in my life who came to me and told me, KB, outside the contract I’ll fund building the brand together and he lived up to it. We are all grateful to him, the whole company and the future of the Radisson Group. 

Navin Berry 

I just want to say that I have very fond memories of Dr. Kapur and not trying to be facetious. But I think in an earlier session there was something like, how do you rate success? And I think when I recall Dr. Kapur, I rate his success by his humility. And I think it’s very important for me because, allow me the privilege, I’ve watched this industry for much longer than many in the audience, humility is often the missing factor in hospitality. 

At various levels of success, the first thing you know that a person has become successful is because success has gone into his head. Dr. Kapur is especially close to me in my heart, for his humility. For all his success, he was the same person, walking all along the lobby or wherever. And I remember, I must tell you this very short story. I used to do an event called SATTE. And one day I got a call from the chairman’s office of ITPO, he wanted to meet me for something. So, I took a shortcut and started walking from Hall 18 towards the ITPO office.

And when I was coming back on the same walk, I suddenly saw from a back entrance, where there was no exit or anything, I saw Dr. Kapur quietly coming out with numerous bags, full of literature that he had collected. I said, what are you doing here? Where are you going? With all those loaded bags when he could have easily had a retinue of his staff to carry them for him. He had no airs about himself. Never imagined himself more than a regular human being, even after having achieved so much.  I insisted, I took the bags from him. I got one of my security guys to escort him to his car. But for him it was not an issue to find his own car, to carry his own bags, not an issue. So, in a small little way I want to say, can he be an example for Indian hospitality. Thank you very much Nitin. You are very privileged to be his son and to carry his legacy.

Habib Rehman 

Habib Rehman, legend unto himself, who oversaw much of the transformation at ITC hotels, passed on a few months ago. He scaled the heights in hospitality and tourism, alongside a time when our industry was growing; he grew with the industry, say, from the late 70s to the early part of this century, a career spanning some 40 years wherein he started at the bottom of the ladder, climbed steadily, to taking a seat on ITC Board, head of ITC Hotels.

Habib was the original foodie, coming from the illustrious culinary traditions of Hyderabad, nurturing the talents of chefs like Imtiaz, at the Bukhara and Dum Pukht, iconic traditions unravelled in the kitchens of Hindustan. 

Habib was a short-service Army Major. He remained the fauji at heart, discipline being his forte. Under that steel like frame, he was the most compassionate of human beings, a great host if there ever was one, at home with a dozen dogs whom he considered family. He kept a full floor for their habitat, complete with air-cooled interiors, with a retinue of servants to look after them.

He joined G L Hotels, originally to work at their Pune Ince Cream factory, recalls, Sunil Lamba, son of P L Lamba, one of the two promoters at G L Hotels. They owned the Rama International at Aurangabad. The ice cream factory was delayed and Habib was offered to join the hotel, which he did. As it so happened, Rama International was bought over by ITC Hotels, giving Habib a divinity inspired chance to enter hospitality and ITC, a company that he cherished till his last days.

Known for detailed planning, an art that must have been nurtured further at ITC, always known for concept notes and detailed reports on projects before embarking upon them. He was always proud of his planning of ITC Grand Bharat, next to the ITC Classic Golf Course, a property that brought together some of the iconic concepts embedded in many of their other properties. In a manner of speaking, all these came together at ITC Grand Bharat.

What was Habib’s legacy? A principled hotelier, a practising and committed believer in the power of tourism, with ingrained hospitality in him, both in the hotel and at his home.