From a young age Saira’s Founder & CEO, Harsha L’Acqua, was strongly influenced by her father’s philanthropic work with Mother Teresa and always sought to merge her deep-rooted dedication to philanthropy with her passion: luxury hospitality.

After years working for international hotel brands including Six Senses Resorts and Residences, Fullerton Hotel and Aman, Harsha enrolled in the MMH graduate program at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, where she began developing the concept for Saira Hospitality. Saira Hospitality won first place at Cornell University’s Business Plan competition in 2014, it was here that Harsha realized the strong correlation between hospitality and philanthropy. Both are linked through the hospitality gene, the gene of service: service to the guest and service to humanity.

Saira partners with luxury and lifestyle hotels, creating bespoke both pop-up and permanent schools to educate and empower local communities for employment in hospitality. Saira creates meaningful partnerships between luxury hotels and the communities they inhabit and offers hotel partners community diplomacy, higher retention and local talent.

Today Saira has graduated 418 Saira students with 100% ROI to participating hotel partners, including Nobu Hotels, Citizen M, Pan Pacific, Hilton, Virgin Limited Edition, Rosewood and the Autograph Collection amongst others. Saira’s 12 schools have taken Harsha to Los Angeles, Mexico, Namibia and the British Virgin Islands over the last nine years. From her upbringing in London to her career with Six Senses and AMAN across Asia, Harsha brings a global eye for education and hospitality to her work around the world.