Girish Jhunjhnuwala

Biography

Girish Jhunjhnuwala was born in Hong Kong in 1963, attending Island School between 1975 and 1982. In 1984, he graduated from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.

He began his career managing his family’s OEM watch business under the Hind Corporation in Hong Kong. He set up watch factories across the Chinese border and did well until 1998, the midst of the Southeast Asian financial crisis. Demand for watches began waning across global markets, and Girish soon realised the industry was no a long-term viable business for Hind Corporation.

In 2002, he sold the business and ventured into property development after acquiring an office complex in Hong Kong’s Central business district. Girish decided to develop this building into the first Ovolo serviced apartment. After proving the concept, Jhunjhnuwala acquired more properties and continued expanding the Ovolo Hotels brand.

In 2016, Jhunjhnuwala won Ernst and Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award in China in the Services Category for identifying an owner-operator model gap in the market.