Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates announced the appointment of Jayakumar Ramakrishna Pillai as its new director of technical services. Pillai brings 25 years of experience to his role ‒ 11 of which have been spent in the Middle East, leading teams of multinational talents in a broad range of engineering and facilities management activities. Pillai moves to Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates from InterContinental Hotels Group, where he served as cluster chief engineer of three of the group's UAE properties and an 18-hole golf course. He previously worked for the Ministry of Defence in Saudi Arabia and has held consultative roles advising construction of five-star hotels in the past.