The Tata Group hospitality arm Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL) has announced the appointment of Deepika Rao as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of its subsidiary Roots Corporation.

Roots Corporation owns and manages the Ginger brand of hotels, one of India’s fastest growing budget brand of hotels.

Commenting on the development, IHCL MD and CEO and Roots Corporation Ltd Chairman Puneet Chhatwal stated, “Further to our commitment to recognizing talent from within the organization and bringing in gender balance, we are delighted to welcome Deepika on board as the first woman to lead an IHCL company.”

He added that the group believes that Deepika is best suited to take brand Ginger to the next level.

On her appointment, Deepika said, “I am privileged to have been given this opportunity to work with a dynamic brand like Ginger. I look forward to working with the team in achieving its growth objectives and continuing to add value to all our stakeholders. ”

Rao started her career with Tata Motors in 2000. She has had many stints across functions in various Tata Group companies for the last 18 years. She will move to her new role from her previous position as Vice President, Asset Management at IHCL, where she was responsible for leading solutions for margin enhancement at the company. She has also served as interim CEO for Roots Corporation Ltd. for a brief period in 2015.

IHCL has been taking steps to promote equal opportunities for women. Last month, it announced two new programs in-line with its commitment to be an equal opportunity employer. Interestingly, one of them was an incentive program for referring women candidates which entails a 30-50 percent higher referral amount to employees in case their selected reference happens to be a woman.