Access Hospitality names Aravinda Gollapudi as CTO

Access Hospitality has appointed Aravinda Gollapudi as Chief Technology Officer as it expands its hospitality software platform in international markets.

Gollapudi joins from Sage, where she was Head of Platform Business Unit and SVP of Technology. There, she led product, engineering and platform strategy teams across a globally distributed organisation.

She joins as Access Hospitality brings together products spanning guest engagement, accommodation management, payments, point of sale, marketing, procurement, workforce management and operations. Her remit will cover the full technology organisation and wider platform architecture.

Access Hospitality, the hospitality technology division of The Access Group, serves more than 100,000 venues worldwide. It has been integrating products including Paytronix and SHR as it works to build a single platform for food and beverage and accommodation operators.

Platform Focus

Gollapudi will lead the company's global technology direction, with a focus on agentic AI across the platform. The work will centre on creating more connected operations for hospitality businesses and improving consistency across the technology stack.

Millions of daily transactions and interactions flow through Access Hospitality's systems. Its AI work is intended to support tasks such as pricing, demand forecasting, guest personalisation and day-to-day operations.

Before Sage, Gollapudi held leadership roles at Intuit, Ellie Mae and VeriSign. Her 28-year career spans software architecture, AI-related transformation work and platform development.

Champa Magesh, CEO of Access Hospitality, set out the company's position on the appointment.

"I am thrilled to welcome Aravinda to the team. Access Hospitality is evolving rapidly - unifying industry leading products like Paytronix and SHR into a next generation guest intelligence and hospitality distribution platform, and building a truly end to end ecosystem that supports operators across F&B and accommodation. Our focus is on creating a single, intelligent platform that connects every part of hospitality and delivers meaningful impact for operators and guests. Aravinda brings deep experience in scaling platforms and leading AI innovation, and she joins at exactly the right moment as we accelerate this transformation and set a new benchmark for the industry," said Champa Magesh, CEO, Access Hospitality.

AI Agenda

The hire reflects a broader push by software suppliers to apply generative and autonomous AI tools in sectors with large volumes of customer interactions and operational data. Hospitality has become a key target for that investment as operators seek tighter control over pricing, staffing, bookings and guest communications.

The move also underlines the importance of the US market for Access Hospitality. Gollapudi will be based on the US East Coast, a setup the company expects will support closer day-to-day work with its UK leadership team and strengthen links between its US business and European operations.

Gollapudi described the shift in the sector as a turning point for operators and software providers.

"The hospitality sector is at a massive inflection point where the scale of market opportunity meets the transformative power of Agentic AI. I am thrilled to join The Access Group to lead a platform strategy that doesn't just automate tasks, but fundamentally reimagines how operators drive innovation. My priority is to ensure this evolution is built on a foundation of trust and transparency, creating an architecture where intelligent systems and human expertise work in seamless, reliable harmony to scale the enterprise," said Gollapudi.

Her appointment also adds a senior executive with experience across established software groups and newer platform businesses. That background is likely to matter as Access Hospitality continues combining acquired products and legacy systems while trying to present customers with a more unified product set.

Access Hospitality also highlighted Gollapudi's work beyond executive roles. She has served as a board adviser to early-stage technology companies and has been involved in diversity and inclusion initiatives in the sector. At Sage, she was recognised internally as a diversity champion and was recently named among Channel Insider's 2025 Top 50 AI Leaders in the Channel, as well as receiving a Stevie Award.

The appointment places technology strategy and AI development at the centre of Access Hospitality's next phase as it expands a software platform that already handles millions of daily transactions and interactions.