Sonu Shivdasani

The Climb

Stewardship came before resort-making in this career. Trained at Eton College, Institut Le Rosey, and Oxford University (1988), Sonu Shivdasani moved directly into management of family businesses at Shivdasani family businesses (from 1988). That work sits close to hospitality craft: care of assets, long-term decisions, and responsibility for people before the guest-facing vocabulary appears. Resort development then became the working field. As founder at Six Senses BVI, founder and former CEO at Six Senses Resorts & Spas in South East Asia and Europe (until 2012), and founder at Evason group of hotels, Sonu Shivdasani worked across properties where atmosphere, landscape, and ease carried more weight than display. The later language around the work—barefoot, sustainable, experiential—belongs to that sequence of roles. The current structure joins resort operation with foundation work. As founder of Soneva (since 1995) and founder of Soneva Foundation, Sonu Shivdasani places the hotel and the advocacy arm in the same frame. Soneva is presented through slow rhythms, local textures, and a deliberate resistance to excess for excess’s sake.

Today

The Slow Life concept gives the operating philosophy a defined set of terms: Sustainable, Local, Organic, Wellness, Learning, Inspiring, Fun, Experiences. In trade terms, it functions less as a slogan than as a brief for how a stay should be built: pleasure connected to place, guest experience framed by environment, and comfort made without detachment from context. Purpose is stated as part of the business model, not as an afterthought. Sonu Shivdasani puts it plainly: "We believe that a company must have a clear purpose beyond turning a profit. It must serve and contribute to the society in which it operates and should not negatively impact the environment in which it is located." The craft note remains sustainability and barefoot luxury travel in the Maldives. Sonu Shivdasani has described the pairing directly: "I am proud that Soneva is known as the original barefoot and sustainable luxury destination, and of our ability to combine luxury in a sustainable manner." Barefoot luxury, in this use, means refinement without stiffness: space, simplicity, and a closer relationship with nature. The definition of luxury is deliberately stripped back. "Essentially, luxury is not about gold and marble." That line fixes the working distinction: hospitality measured less by material display than by freedom, quiet, and the guest’s sense of being in the place rather than insulated from it.

Signature

The named signatures are Soneva Fushi, Soneva’s “Slow Life” concept, and “The No News.” Soneva Fushi names the resort expression, “Slow Life” sets the operating vocabulary, and “The No News” points to a managed withdrawal from ordinary noise. Sustainable luxury hospitality is the central craft position. The work associated with Sonu Shivdasani keeps the comfort and care expected of luxury in the same frame as the responsibility implied by sustainability. The claim is not that the two are opposites reconciled once, but that they are treated as the same operating problem across the career.

In Their Words “We believe that a company must have a clear purpose beyond turning a profit. It must serve and contribute to the society in which it operates and should not negatively impact the environment in which it is located.” “I am proud that Soneva is known as the original barefoot and sustainable luxury destination, and of our ability to combine luxury in a sustainable manner.”

Recognition

Recognition includes Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) (2023) and Seven Rooms Icon Award (2023). In the record of Sonu Shivdasani, those honors sit beside a hospitality practice organized around purpose, sustainability, and a reduced definition of luxury.