RIU Hotels & Resorts has appointed Janitha Madawala as Deputy General Manager – East Africa Operations, further strengthening its executive leadership team to drive operational excellence, strategic transformation, and sustainable growth across its East African portfolio.
An internationally accomplished hospitality executive with more than two decades of leadership experience, Janitha has built an impressive career overseeing luxury resort operations, multi-property portfolios, and hotel pre-openings across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, the South Pacific, and North America. His expertise also spans organizational transformation, commercial optimization, and operational excellence.
In his new role, Janitha will work closely with General Managers and senior regional stakeholders to provide strategic oversight of resort operations. At the same time, he will help advance RIU’s long-term commercial, operational, and organizational objectives throughout East Africa.
His responsibilities include executive governance, operational strategy, financial stewardship, business performance, guest experience, talent succession, asset optimization, and enterprise risk management. Additionally, he will oversee hotel pre-openings, capital enhancement projects, renovations, and strategic operational transformation initiatives across the region.
Before joining RIU Hotels & Resorts, Janitha served as Senior Cluster Director of Food & Beverage & Entertainment for Sunrise Resorts & Cruises in Egypt. There, he provided executive leadership across three internationally recognized luxury resorts with more than 1,375 guest rooms and 26 dining and entertainment venues. During his tenure, he led operational performance strategies, commercial initiatives, guest experience programs, and leadership development efforts, consistently delivering strong financial and operational results.
Earlier in his career, Janitha held senior leadership positions with IHG Hotels & Resorts, Carnival Cruise Line, Premier Inn, Emirates Leisure Retail, Ramada by Wyndham, Southern Sun Hotels, Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts, and Hilton. Throughout these roles, he successfully led hotel pre-openings, organizational restructuring, operational turnarounds, large-scale refurbishment projects, and multimillion-dollar hospitality operations across highly competitive international markets.
Widely respected for building high-performance leadership cultures, Janitha is known for accelerating commercial growth while strengthening governance frameworks and service excellence. His leadership approach emphasizes operational precision, innovation, stakeholder value creation, and long-term organizational sustainability.
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