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25 Feb, 2017

Sonu Shivdasani, Founder, CEO and Chairman, Soneva

ASEAN Travel & Tourism Hall of Fame – Initiated by Travel Impact Newswire Executive Editor Imtiaz Muqbil to recognise the many veterans who helped grow and shape ASEAN tourism over the last 50 years.

 

Date and Place of birth: 23rd November 1965, London

Marital and family status: Married to Eva Malmström Shivdasani

Education: Eton College, followed by Le Rosey in Switzerland, Masters Degree, Oxford University in English Literature, 1993

Career:

After graduation, spent two years with the family business set up by his father in in finance, trade and agro-allied industries in France, West Africa, India and Europe.

Set up Six Senses Resorts & Spas in 1995 with his wife Eva at the age of 30. Opened the first spa and resort property on the island of Kunfunadhoo in Maldives in 1995.

By 2011, Six Senses was a $150–175 million international luxury spa and resort chain with 26 resorts and 41 spas, including four properties in Thailand and two in Vietnam.

Sold Six Senses to Pegasus Capital in mid-2012 to focus on owned resorts with private residences, as part of the “One Owner, One Operator, One Philosophy, One Brand” strategy under the Soneva brand.

Soneva owns the luxury resorts Soneva Fushi and Soneva Jani in the Maldives, Soneva Kiri in Thailand, and Soneva in Aqua (a two-cabin luxury yacht that sails from Soneva Fushi.)

Other activities

One of the founders of the Soneva Foundation (previously known as the SLOWLIFE Foundation), a UK registered charity which supports the development of innovative and imaginative projects whose impacts directly address social and environmental challenges around the world.

Has won numerous awards from travel publications, organisations and other institutions for his work in sustainable development.