Rakesh Prusti

Mr Rakesh Prusti is an experienced General Counsel (GC) with over 26 years of successful history of working in diverse industries and complex ecosystems across geographies. A transformational change enabler, he is a problem solver, a firm believer in empowerment and is known for inspiring and enabling his team for superior performance.

Mr Prusti is the Group General Counsel at OYO, a technology platform that empowers the large yet highly fragmented global hospitality ecosystem. Trusted by his business partners and stakeholders for his complex problem-solving abilities, Mr Prusti is a key member of the leadership team at OYO. He is also a member of the Risk Management Committee and the boards of group companies at OYO.

Over the last 17 years in GC Roles, Mr Prusti led global and domestic strategic and inorganic initiatives, managed cross-border mergers & acquisitions, financing, high-stakes dispute resolutions, enterprise risk management, board management, corporate governance and compliance framework, international legal strategy, key policies training, corporate restructuring and policy advocacy. He has been instrumental in establishing accountability-based talent grooming for leadership roles, encouraging his team to partner with CXO groups and management for effective delivery. Throughout his career, Mr Prusti has partnered with the world’s leading legal firms for transactions, litigations and corporate matters.

At OYO, through 2018 and 2019, he led multiple billion dollars fundraises for its subsidiaries and JVs driving the company’s global expansion. He led the acquisition of @Leisure Group in 2019, which is now part of OYO’s Europe vacation home business and operates multiple brands, including Belvilla, DanCenter, Traum and others. He was also a key leader in raising TLB funding from global institutional investors for OYO of $660mn, a first for an Indian company.

At Max Healthcare, Mr Prusti led the acquisitions of Saket City Hospital and Pushpanjali Crosslay Hospital, which in aggregate doubled the bed capacity of Max making it one of the leaders in quaternary and tertiary healthcare in India. He was instrumental in transforming their medico-legal processes and setting up a fully customised online compliance program that mapped every part of the hospital and business operations with system-supported reporting to the Audit Committee, one of the first in-house lead initiatives for healthcare companies in India.

At Carrefour, a $100 bn company, as a Senior Director for India, he led the partnership discussion while setting up legal, compliance and governance functions from scratch, working closely with the global GC and M&A team and on-boarding global policies from the headquarter in Paris.

In 2001, Mr Prusti started his first General Counsel stint at NIIT and set up a digital workflow-based corporate governance system and broad-basing customer base with millions of dollars’ revenue pipeline and leading M&As/JV negotiations in the UK and Europe. Before that, he served in various functions at ChrysCapital invested Global Vantedge and Cottage Industries Exposition.

Mr Prusti holds a bachelor’s degree in law and science and is also a Company Secretary and Cost & Works Accountant (Intermediate). He lives in Gurgaon with his wife, Komal and sons, Adarsh and Advik. In his personal time, he loves taking trips to national parks with his family to learn and grow his interest in wildlife photography. His sons share his passion for golf and are taking up the sport in their formative years.