OYO Hotels & Homes has appointed former General Electric (GE) general counsel (GC) Tejal Patil has senior legal advisor for India and South Asia, as of 21 September.

The 1993 GLC Mumbai LLB graduate had been at GE for 19 years, including in Singapore, Tokyo and in Delhi; in May 2020, John Thaliath took over her role at GE.

Patil is a qualified solicitor in England & Wales, and with the Bombay Incorporated Law Society.

She will be reporting to Oyo’s India and South Asia CEO Rohit Kapoor, as well as Gurgaon-based global general counsel Rakesh Prusti, according to a press release from the company.

She will be part of Oyo’s “global leadership team” and managing regulatory, contractual and legal compliance in the India and South Asia region, as well as its local outside counsel relationships.

CEO Kapoor commented in the press release that “someone of her calibre and market reputation will help us strengthen our corporate governance standards and ensure the highest level of compliance in all our decisions”, and would be a “true thought partner” to the global leadership team.

Her “proactive management style, pragmatic approach to decision making, and the integrated ‘one-team’ spirit that she is known to instill in her team, will surely enable our legal team to function seamlessly while enabling cross-business projects to maintain legal efficiencies”, he added.

Global GC Prusti commented that she had “proven leadership skills, problem-solving capabilities, and passion for building efficient teams with strong corporate governance”, which made her “best suited to take OYO’s legal team in the region to the next level”.

Patil added in the press release: ”I have followed OYO’s journey from being a startup, to its entry into the unicorn club, international expansion, amongst others, and I look forward to playing my part in its growth story as the company sets its foot on to the road to recovery.

“This is an exciting time for the company, as travel resumes and people start looking for good quality, safe and hygienic places, at an affordable price, I strongly believe we have all it takes to be one of the first new-age hospitality companies to come out stronger as the pandemic subsides.”