Vidya Mudaliar

Head of HR and L&D at Jordana Restaurant LLC – PizzaExpress UAE

Speaker

Vidya is a hospitality and people development professional with over 20 years of leadership experience across luxury hospitality, food & beverage operations, learning and development, and human resources. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Hotel Management and is CIPD Level 5 qualified in People Management, a milestone that strengthened her understanding of the people profession and paved the way for her transition into Human Resources.

Her career began as a Management Trainee with The Park Hotels, India, where she gained hands-on leadership experience across restaurant operations, front office, club floor operations, business centres, and bars. She later joined the prestigious Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi, managing both The Chambers—an exclusive private members' club—and Wasabi by Morimoto, one of the world's most acclaimed Japanese restaurants. She also co-led the opening of a wellness centre, overseeing the launch and operations of its café, before becoming the Food & Beverage Manager of a luxury resort in Pondicherry.

After relocating to the UAE, Vidya joined PizzaExpress in 2015 as a Restaurant Manager, where her passion for developing people gradually evolved into a career in Learning & Development and Human Resources. Today, she leads HR and L&D, drawing on her operational background to create practical, people-first solutions that support both business performance and employee growth.

She is particularly passionate about culture transformation, values-led leadership, change management, employee engagement, and creating learning experiences that inspire lasting behavioural change. Designing and rolling out organisational values, strengthening workplace culture, and helping individuals unlock their potential are at the heart of her work. Fittingly, Vidya means "knowledge" in Sanskrit—a philosophy she strives to live every day through continuous learning and by helping others grow.

Outside of work, Vidya is an avid advanced scuba diver and an enthusiastic runner. Scuba diving has reinforced many of the principles she brings into Learning & Development—meticulous preparation, structured training, clear communication, trust, and the discipline to remain calm under pressure. In an environment where knowledge and practice directly impact safety, she has come to appreciate the value of building confidence through learning before performance. Running tells a different story. Having taken up the sport after the age of 40, it became a personal reminder that growth has no age limit. She is currently training towards completing her first full marathon later this year, embracing the same mindset she encourages in others: that progress comes through consistency, resilience, and the willingness to take the first step.

Inspired by her school motto, Deeds, Not Words, she believes the true measure of learning is not what we know, but what we put into practise and perfect.