Oyo appoints Indian woman Paralympics medallist Deepa Malik as independent director

Oyo announced on Wednesday that it has appointed Deepa Malik, an Indian athlete and a silver-medalist at the 2016 Paralympic Games as an independent director.

Malik is currently the president of the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI).

Ritesh Agarwal, founder, chairman, and group CEO of Oyo, said the company has been working on making its board more inclusive over the last couple of years.


“I have learnt during my journey that having a diverse board is one of the best ways to inculcate lateral thinking. Dr Malik’s experience and her passion for travel and adventure would be invaluable for Oyo for years to come."

Malik said she has a deep passion for travel and adventure and she looks forward to bringing a customer oriented perspective to Oyo. "I am also looking forward to contributing my perspective on promoting workforce diversity which forms an integral part of Oyo's environmental, social and governance agenda," she added.

She joins the board of Oyo that has three other independent directors and one nominee director, besides Ritesh Agarwal being the chairman. The other independent directors as per the reconstituted board include Bejul Somaia, W Steve Albrecht and Troy Alstead.

Bejul is the Partner at Lightspeed India Partners. Steve is a certified internal auditor and certified fraud examiner. Troy is the former COO at Starbucks.

The Board also includes Aditya Ghosh, former director at InterGlobe Group (Indigo), as a non-executive nominee director.

Ritesh Agarwal, RA Hospitality Holdings and SoftBank Vision Fund are the largest shareholders at Oyo.