Infosys co-founder SD Shibulal joins hospitality venture The Tamara

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Infosys co-founder SD Shibulal joins hospitality venture The Tamara SD Shibulal, one of the seven co-founders of technology giant Infosys, after retiring, has now joined his daughter’s hospitality venture The Tamara as Chairman. As reported by Economic Times, Shibulal made the move at the time when the firm is planning at least one fresh acquisition in the German speaking region of Western Europe.
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Shibulal, just after his retirement - a year back- started making investments through his family office Innovations Investment Management, most notably in real estate and hospitality sectors.

The Tamara’s director and CEO Senthil Kumar N said, "He (Shibulal) plans to use his years of experience on a professionally run board to bring the foremost standards of corporate governance to The Tamara."

The Tamara, not just a hospitality venture, also works under the umbrella of Shibulal’s family office and helps them manage properties owned by the Shibulal family across the globe.

The company's flagship property and brand is The Tamara Coorg - a pet project of Shruti Shibulal, who is currently spearheading the venture's Thiruvananthapuram project as well as the acquisition being pursued in Europe.

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Shruti, who holds an MBA degree from Columbia Business School started her career with Merrill Lynch. She has also been actively building the family's real estate portfolio and also runs several fine-dining restaurants, including Caperberry and Fava in Bengaluru's upmarket UB City mall.

"Each one of our platforms (such as The Tamara) has a professional management and governance structure in place from the beginning. They develop their own medium and long-term plans based on various factors. For example, our decision to consider acquiring a hotel property in the German speaking part of Western Europe is part of our long-term strategy," said Kumar, an IIM-Bangalore and BITS-Pilani graduate who joined the Shibulal family office in 2005.

Kumar also informed about the company’s forthcoming plans of getting two new properties in Lilac in Bengaluru and Palma Laguna on the Kerala backwaters. Not just this but the construction of its Thiruvananthapuram and Kodai projects have also begun.

Shibulal's family office currently manages the entire wealth of the family including any new funds added through dividends and share sales, and also helps build the philanthropic and business platforms which the family is interested in, Kumar said.

Since his retirement, Shibulal has also become an active investor in the startup ecosystem and even set up a venture capital and accelerator program called Axilor under the purview of his family office, roping in fellow Infosys co-founder S Gopalakrishnan as an investor.

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Image: indiatimes