Oyo gets fraud expert on its board

Bengaluru: SoftBank-backed Oyo Hotels & Homes said it has appointed fraud expert W Steve Albrecht as a non-executive director on the company’s board to help “strengthen its focus on corporate governance and process improvement at multiple levels”. Albrecht has consulted with organisations like the FBI and the UN, serving as an expert witness in over 38 major fraud cases.
The development comes at a time when Oyo has been going through a process of restructuring, which started before the lockdown. The hospitality company, which expanded across the world last year, has laid off over 5,000 employees and last month furloughed more as Covid-19 pandemic hits its business.
Albrecht, former president of the American Accounting Association and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, is also on the board of SkyWest Airlines and Larry H Miller Group of Companies while earlier being on the board of Red Hat and Cypress SemiConductor. He will join other recent board members at Oyo like former Starbucks COO Troy Alstead and Baja Corporation’s Betsy Atkins besides investor representatives from SoftBank, Sequoia and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
“As Covid-19 continues to impact the business and forces businesses to rethink its strategies, our board has also come together and has been constantly guiding us on business continuity and recovery measures,” said Oyo founder Ritesh Agarwal in a statement.