Ankur Bhatia, Executive Director, Bird Group passed away this morning due to a massive cardiac arrest. He was 48. Bhatia is survived by his architect wife, Smriti and two children.
Bhatia has led the group’s strategic thrust to create multiple drivers of growth that made a significant and growing contribution to the company and industry at large.
Articulating a vision for Bird Group and direction to the consortia of companies, he is credited with bringing in the Amadeus brand to the Indian sub-continent in 1994, which today is the market leader in providing travel technology for travel agents & airlines.
During the formative years, Bhatia steered the company's entry into new growth areas. While still pursuing his degree from King's College, University of London and capitalising the BPO wave in the travel domain, he piloted Reservation Data Maintenance (India) Pvt. Ltd. (RDM), an IT enabled software development and service support company for managing back-end airline operations and inventory control.
Marking the Group's IT services and R&D foray with Bird Information Systems (BIS), another of his extremely successful ventures, provides state-of-the-art technology and solutions to various airlines. Also, to his credit is BirdRes, a B2B distribution channel that allows the travel industry players to effectively manage all aspects of their content and payment needs in a flexible and easy to use solution.
For his outstanding contribution to the travel, tourism and hospitality industry, he and the various business verticals under his patronage have been felicitated with prestigious awards and accolades over the past many years.
Bhatia was conferred with the title of Honorary Consulate General of the Republic of Liberia in India. In September 2016, He was awarded with an honorary Doctorate of Excellence recognising him for his success in his established field. |