Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

Chittarath Poovakkatt Krishnan Nair (9 February 1922 – 17 May 2014) was an Indian businessman who founded The Leela Group. He was a 2010 recipient of the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan (IAST: ''Padma Bhūṣaṇa'', lit. 'Lotus Decoration') is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 Januar ...

, given by

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

. He was sometimes popularly known as Captain Nair due to his service in the

Indian Army The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...

Early life and military career

Nair was born in a village in

Kannur district Kannur () is one of the 14 Districts of Kerala, districts along the west coast in the state of Kerala, India. The city of Kannur is the district headquarters and gives the district its name. The old name, Cannanore, is the anglicized form of th ...

in northern

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

on 9 February 1922. At the time the village was located in the

Malabar District Malabar District, also known as British Malabar or simply Malabar was an administrative district on the southwestern Malabar Coast of Bombay Presidency (1792–1800), Madras Presidency (1800–1950) and finally, Madras State (1950–1956) in ...

of the

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency or Madras Province, officially called the Presidency of Fort St. George until 1937, was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India and later the Dominion of India. At its greatest extent, the presidency i ...

of the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

. Nair was one of eight children. His father, Appu Nair, worked as a government bill collector earning a monthly income of . During a visit by the Maharaja of Chirakkal to his school, Nair wrote and recited a poem in the Maharaja's honour. The poem impressed the Maharaja and he awarded Nair a lifetime scholarship. During his teenage years Nair met

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

leaders such as P. Krishna Pillai and A.K. Gopalan. Nair joined the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic ...

at the age of 13. He traveled to

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

in 1942 to join the

, and was posted as wireless officer in Abbottabad (in present-day Pakistan). He became an aid of Netaji Shubhash Chandra Bose and later came in close contact with leaders of Indian Freedom Movement. He rose to the rank of

in the

Maratha Light Infantry The Maratha Light Infantry is a light infantry regiment of the Indian Army. It traces its lineage to the Bombay Sepoys, raised in 1768, making it the most senior light infantry regiment in the Indian Army. Recruitment The class composition o ...

Later career

After resigning from the Army in 1951, Nair helped establish the All India Handloom Board. At the board he played a major role in marketing hand-spun Indian yarn in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Through frequent business trips to

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and the United States, Nair gained exposure to international hotels such as Adlon Kempinski, Dorchester,

Savoy Savoy (; )  is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south and west and to the Aosta Vall ...

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. George w ...

and

Waldorf-Astoria The Waldorf Astoria New York is a luxury hotel and condominium residence in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York. The structure, at 301 Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Street (Manhattan), 50th Streets, is a 47-story ...

, which would inspire his own eventual entry into the hospitality industry. In 1958, he joined hands with Brooks Brothers to announce Bleeding Madras fabric, which later had clients like

Tommy Hilfiger Thomas Jacob Hilfiger ( ; born March 24, 1951) is an American fashion designer and the founder of Tommy Hilfiger (company), Tommy Hilfiger Corporation. After starting his career by co-founding a chain of jeans/fashion stores called People's P ...

Wal-Mart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...

Liz Claiborne Anne Elisabeth Jane Claiborne (March 31, 1929 – June 26, 2007) was an American fashion designer and businesswoman. Her success was built upon stylish yet affordable apparel for career women featuring colorfully tailored separates that cou ...

and

Macy's Macy's is an American department store chain founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. The first store was located in Manhattan on Sixth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, south of the present-day flagship store at Herald Square on West 34 ...

. Later that year, he started a lace-weaving unit in Sahar,

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

Leela Hotels

In 1957, Nair was part of a delegation of the All India Handloom Board to

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

, which involved visits to Frankfurt, Cologne, Munich and Hamburg. Following his stay at the Kempinsky Hotel in Budapest, he realized the need for a luxury hotel chain in India that could measure up to international standards. With the Sahar International Airport opening in 1981, Nair realized that there were no good hotels in Andheri, the Mumbai suburb where the airport is located. Nair established Hotel Leelaventure Ltd. in 1983, and began construction of a hotel in Sahar on 4-acre plot of land that he owned, and an additional 6.5 acres that he leased. The first Leela Hotel opened in Mumbai in 1987. This was followed by the Leela Palace in Bangalore, The Leela Goa, and the Leela Beach Resort in Thiruvananthapuram.

Awards

The American Academy of Hospitality Sciences (AAHS) conferred him a Lifetime Achievement Award and the

United Nations Environment Programme The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the Declaration of the United Nati ...

(UNEP) awarded him the Global 500 Roll of Honour award in 1999. Eventually he was awarded the

, by

in 2010. He was also awarded the "Hotelier of The Century" Award by International Hotels and Restaurant Association, based in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2009. He stepped down as the chairman of Hotel Leela on 7 February 2013 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Vivek Nair.

Death

Krishnan Nair died at 3:30 AM IST on 17 May 2014 at the Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai, following a brief illness.

Personal life

Nair married Leela (after whom he named his hotel group), the daughter of industrialist A. K. Nair, in 1950. They had two sons, Vivek Nair and Dinesh Nair. Vivek is the current chairman and managing director of the Leela Group, while Dinesh is the co-chairman of Leela group. Nair is a relative of V. P. Menon, an Indian

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

who was the Constitutional Adviser and Political Reforms Commissioner to the last three Viceroys during British rule in India. Leela Krishnan Nair died on 16 May 2021, a day before her husband's seventh death anniversary.

References

External links

C. P. Krishnan Nair, Official webpage
at '' Leela Group of Hotels'' website {{DEFAULTSORT:Nair, C. P. Krishnan Businesspeople from Kannur 1922 births 2014 deaths Malayali people Indian hoteliers Indian businesspeople in textiles Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in trade and industry 20th-century Indian businesspeople Indian Army personnel