Ajay Kapur new Director of the Academy for Leisure & Events

On 26 August 2024, Ajay Kapur will start as our new Director of the Academy for Leisure & Events  and member of the BUas Executive Board. He will be the successor of Roland Kleve, who stepped back from that role as of May 2024.

In the past two years Ajay Kapur has been working at Saxion, as Manager of the Academy for Creative Technologies and as Program Manager of the Academy for Applied Psychology and International HRM. Before Saxion he worked for 12 years for Hotelschool The Hague and Amsterdam as a Lecturer of Marketing & Sales, as Faculty Head of Marketing & Innovation, and as Bachelor’s Programme Manager.  
In the earlier days of his career Ajay worked for Loyalty Management Netherlands (Airmiles) and in various marketing and sales roles at Delta Lloyd Insurances.

Ajay (53, born in India) holds a Bachelor's degree in Hotel Management (The Hague) and a Master of Science and MBA degree (University of Amsterdam), and several marketing programme degrees. Additionally, he participated in various management programmes. Besides his tenured positions he was involved in overtourism research, was a moderator at the Independent Hotel Show, and was a member of the Delta Lloyd Diversity Committee. He has lived and worked in India and the UK. Currently, Ajay lives in Amsterdam with his wife Mariëlle, who is originally from Roosendaal. They have a rescue dog from Greece.

Jorrit Snijder, president of the Executive Board of BUas says: ’Ajay is an experienced manager in higher education and an asset to our BUas community. He has a rich career in higher education, working closely with industry and students, and a strong intercultural mindset. We are looking forward to working with Ajay and to his contribution to our Leisure & Events faculty and staff as well as to the broader BUas hospitality perspective.’

Ajay: ’One of the first things that stood out for me at BUas was the sentence ”creating meaningful experiences”. This resonates with me for two reasons: first of all it showcases the essence of the field of leisure and events and secondly it summarises the transformative period that we as educators can contribute to the lives of our students. I look very much forward to working together with faculty, staff, students and industry. My first experiences with the BUas community have shown the warmth in relations that is familiar to me when being in Brabant!“