Brands
Elan Group appoints Mark Griffiths as COO, projects
GURUGRAM: Elan Group has brought in a seasoned hand to keep its growing portfolio firmly on track. The real estate major has appointed Mark Griffiths as chief operating officer, projects, adding global firepower to its project execution engine.
With 34 years of international experience under his hard hat, Griffiths has built and delivered some of the world’s most complex real estate and infrastructure projects across India, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. His career reads like a map of modern mega-builds, with senior leadership roles at Leighton Asia, Lodha Group, Laing O’Rourke, John Holland and most recently Albawani in Riyadh, where he oversaw key elements of Saudi Arabia’s ambitious Neom projects.
During his stint as country manager for India at Leighton Asia, Griffiths led projects worth more than USD 2 billion across the country, combining scale with discipline and steady growth. At Lodha Group, he played a key role in strengthening large residential portfolios by sharpening pre-contract processes, safety systems and quality benchmarks.
At Elan Group, Griffiths will take charge of end-to-end project delivery, with a focus on timelines, cost control, quality and operational efficiency across its expanding real estate and infrastructure developments.
Commenting on his appointment, Mark Griffiths said the group’s ambition stood out. “Elan Group’s reputation for innovation, scale and design-led development is impressive. I look forward to working with the leadership team to embed global best practices and deliver high-quality assets with consistency in a fast-changing market.”
A graduate in Construction Management from the University of Canberra, Griffiths is known for blending hands-on technical expertise with calm, strategic leadership across large, multi-stakeholder projects.
With this appointment, Elan Group signals its intent clearly. Growth will be matched with governance, and ambition with execution, brick by brick, project by project.
Brands
Uber launches hotel bookings feature in partnership with Expedia
From hotel bookings to room service at your door, the ride-hailing giant is making its boldest push yet into everyday life
CALIFORNIA: Uber is done being just a taxi app. At its annual GO-GET product event, the world’s leading mobility and delivery platform unveiled a sweeping set of new features designed to plant itself at the centre of how people travel, eat and shop, hotel bookings included.
The headline move is a partnership with Expedia Group that lets Uber users in the United States book hotels directly within the Uber app, with access to a catalogue that will eventually grow to more than 700,000 properties worldwide. Uber One members get 10 per cent back in Uber One credits on all hotel bookings and savings of at least 20 per cent on a rolling list of more than 10,000 hotels globally. Vacation rentals from Vrbo, Expedia Group’s home-rental brand, will be added later this year. The partnership is expected to expand beyond the United States. From June, Uber rides will also be integrated directly into the Expedia app, with push notifications sent to travellers ahead of hotel check-in to book discounted Uber rides for the duration of their stay.
Dara Khosrowshahi, chief executive of Uber, framed the expansion in terms of the modern condition. “Uber is becoming an app for everything, helping people go, get, and now travel all in one place,” he said. “We’re all living through a moment of real cognitive overload: too many apps, too many decisions, too much noise. At the end of the day, our job is to help people reclaim their time, spending less of it managing the logistics of life and more of it actually living.”
Ariane Gorin, chief executive of Expedia Group, struck a similarly ambitious note. “Travel should feel effortless, and this partnership gets us one step closer to offering a seamless traveller experience,” she said. “By connecting our two-sided marketplace with Uber, we’re bringing Uber rides directly into the Expedia app and Expedia Group’s lodging inventory into the Uber app through our Rapid API technology. Together, we’re helping travellers spend less time planning and more time enjoying the journey.”
Beyond hotels, the product announcements come thick and fast. Travel Mode, available within both the Uber and Uber Eats apps, offers curated recommendations on local favourites, tourist destinations, OpenTable restaurant reservations and on-demand delivery to hotel rooms. Uber One International means the membership programme now works globally, allowing members to earn credits on rides abroad that can be redeemed once back home. A new Shop for Me feature lets users request items from any store, even those not listed on the app. Eats for the Way allows riders in select cities booking an Uber Black or Uber Black SUV to have a drink or snack waiting for them in the car. Voice Bookings, powered by artificial intelligence, lets users book a ride conversationally, without touching their phone. And a redesigned One Search bar consolidates results for places, food and items across the entire Uber platform in a single query.
Uber has now logged more than 72 billion trips since it launched in 2010. The question it is now answering is what comes after the ride. The answer, apparently, is everything else. Whether users want a hotel in Paris, a coffee in the back of a car or a snake plant from the local garden centre, Uber would very much like to be the one to provide it. The app economy’s land grab has a new front-runner.
NOTE: The image used is AI generated and only for representational purposes.
