Vithal V. Kamat

Vithal Venkatesh Kamat is an Indian hotelier and environmentalist. He is Executive Chairman and Managing Director of Kamat Hotels Group Limited. He was born to Venkatesh Kamat in Mumbai. His father worked as a dishwasher. In 1952 he opened his first restaurant Satkar. Vittal pesued his education in Robertmani highschool and took degree in Engineering.Vithal joined his father in 1970 and is now the Chairman of Asia’s first Ecotel hotel “The Orchid”.
Career
Vithal Kamat worked as a cook in a restaurant in London and learnt the hotel business skills. Later in India he started with the basic principles of green development, and opened India’s first Ecotel hotel “The Orchid”. In 1984 Kamat bought a four star hotel ‘Airport plaza’ and changed its name to “Kamat Plaza”. He visits as guest faculty at IIM Ahmadabad, BITS Pilani and many management institutes in India and abroad. Kamat planted more than 60 lakh trees and transformed over 100 acres of hillock into medicinal plants and local trees for forestation. He is also credited with constructing the first Butterfly Garden in Mumbai and other gardens across Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. He also erected the Child Gives Birth to a Mother monuments in verious parts of the country. Kamat is involved with more than 1200 Advance Locality Management for maintaining clean and hygienic streets in india. His annual practices include the conversion of over 100 tons of Nirmalya into manure after the Ganapati immersions in Mumbai. As a conservationist he has created Raghu-Chivu Galli (Parrot & Sparrow Street) in Mumbai. Preservation and procreation of Turtule Eggs in Konkan and Orissa, conservation of deer near Fort Jadhavgadh, Pune. He is also in the process of setting up a ‘Dolphin Observatory centre in Chilka Lake, Orissa. A keen Antiquarian with a collection of over 35000 exhibits, Kamat has also set up ‘Aai’ – The ‘Mother’ Museum in Mumbai and Fort Jadhavgadh, Pune. As a fine art collector, he has collected 10,800 Ganesha statues & 11,000 turtel artifacts. He has published “Idli, Orchid and Will Power” and “Yash Apyash Ani Me” books.
Honours
Kamat has received more than 110 national and international awards that includes Best CEO of Industry Award by the Indian Express, Golden Peacock Award from the Dalai Lama, Lifetime Achievement Award, 2012 in Germany, Green Hotelier Award 2010, Rajiv Gandhi Environment Award 2010, Golden Peacock Environment Management Award 2010 by Ola Ullsten. He was the President of the Maharashtra Economic Development Council (MEDC), Member of the Priyadarshini Academies Global Award Advisory committee and chairman of the Technical Education Mumbai Board.