Back to Global Conversations 1.26: Sonu Shivdasani, Eco-Luxury Pioneer
Sonu Shivdasani is the co-founder of Soneva Resorts and founder and former CEO of Six Senses and one of the leading pioneers of sustainability and barefoot luxury travel in the Maldives. He talks with Melissa Biggs Bradley about his passion for the island nation, his latest projects, why Slow Travel matters more than ever, his favorite destinations and much more.
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Over a career of now nearly 30 years in hospitality, Sonu Shivdasani has established a highly successful template for eco-resorts and defined and refined the term “barefoot luxury” as we understand it today. Along the way, he helped to establish the Maldives as a coveted, five-star luxury destination. After Sonu—and his wife and business partner, Eva—sold the Six Senses in 2012, they couple has devoted themselves to the Soneva properties in the Maldives and Thailand, which are the cornerstones for an ever-growing program of sustainability and community projects that operate locally as well as in India, Myanmar and beyond. Their work ranges from developing training and employment programs to reforestation and clean energy initiatives. But all of this was born from a single passion—a love for the Maldives, which Sonu and Eva first discovered back in the ‘80s.
