Aditya Puri Chairman

Recognised as a stalwart of the Indian banking and financial services industry, Mr. Puri was the iconic Founder-Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of HDFC Bank from its inception in 1994 until his retirement from the position in October 2020, earning the distinction of having been the longest serving head of a private bank in India.

Not only was Mr. Puri’s visionary leadership instrumental in HDFC Bank’s outstanding growth and value creation for all stakeholders, but it also led the way for several firsts and milestones for Indian private sector banking as a whole.

Prior to setting up HDFC Bank, he was Chief Executive Officer of Citibank Malaysia with nearly two decades of overall banking experience across markets with Citibank. Mr. Puri has been conferred with several prestigious awards, accolades and titles for his exceptional contribution to Indian industry, including successive appearances in Barron’s world’s 30 best CEOs lists.

Mr. Puri was inducted into the Chartered Accountants Hall of Fame by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), becoming the first member of ICAI to be honoured with this award. A profile by the Economist in October 2020 describing him as the world’s best banker only further underscored Mr. Puri’s towering international reputation.

Dr. Kausalya Santhanam Independent Director

Dr. Kausalya Santhanam, Founder of SciVista IP & Communication (www.scivistaip.com), is a Patent attorney registered with the Indian Patent Office as well as the US Patent and Trademark Office and Indian Patent Office. She has a Ph.D. in Cell Biology and Immunology from Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh. Her Post-Doctoral training was in Cancer Biology at Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, where she has published her studies in peer-reviewed journals. Later she went as a National Research Council (NRC)

Fellow to Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington DC where her studies involved molecular mechanisms of inflammation. Following that, at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, she worked towards understanding the mechanisms of an apoptotic molecule. All the research work have been published in reputed journals. Later, she worked for five years in the Intellectual Property Department of CuraGen Corporation, a Biopharmaceutical company at Connecticut, USA. She is an Independent Director of the Company.

Ramakrishnan R Independent Director and Audit Committee Chairman

Mr. R Ramakrishnan is a fellow member of The Institute of Chartered Accounts of India and also a Law Graduate from Bangalore University. He is a practicing Chartered Accountant and a Management Consultant at Bangalore having an experience of 36 years in Direct tax matters, Audit and Assurances. He was nominated by KSIIDC for few listed companies and currently holds directorships in reputed companies.

He is also a Managing Trustee for RRK Foundation – a foundation financially supporting more than 100 students for Higher Secondary School to economically weaker sections and Trustee for few philanthropic organizations.

He is an Independent Director and Audit Committee Chairman of the Company.

Nirmal Bhogilal Independent Director

Mr. Nirmal Bhogilal is the Chairman of the Batliboi Group. The Group’s operations are in machine tools, textile machinery, air engineering & pollution control equipment, rotating machines, wind energy and logistics.

He was Past President and currently a Committee Member of the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers Association (IMTMA). He has been Chairman of various committees in the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at the National & Western Region levels and is currently a member of the CII National Council. He is a Committee member and past President of Indo German Chamber of Commerce.

He is also a Committee member of the Forum of Free Enterprise and a Council member of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA). He is an Independent Director of Chowgule Industries Pvt. Ltd. and Eimco Elecon (I) Ltd.

Arun Kumar Founder & Non-Executive Director

Arun Kumar is a first-generation entrepreneur and is known for his intellect of picking “difficult to operate” domains with high scarcity value. He founded Strides Pharma Science Limited (Strides) in 1990 and has since led the company in building a global reputation with a differentiated business model and delivering value for its stakeholders (Over $5.0 billion value creation for shareholders including distribution of the most extensive dividend by a pharmaceutical company in India).

Besides founding Strides, Arun’s family office (Setup in the early 2000s) run a differentiated set of investments spread across several companies with a combined revenue base over a billion dollars and an invested capital over half a billion dollars. Arun is credited to have co-founded and built India’s largest fully integrated Animal Health Company – SeQuent Scientific Limited in less than five years of its major investments. Arun’s ownership in SeQuent was divested to the Carlyle group in May 2020 in a strategic transaction.

Arun is the promoter of Solara Active Pharma Sciences, A pure-play API company on course to become India’s second largest API business in under four years. Recently, the family office of Arun has entered into a strategic partnership with marquee investors to build a global biologics CDMO, specialty injectable and vaccine business with capabilities across several technology platforms. The businesses run under Arun’s leadership / ownership have a presence in 100+ countries with 7000+ employees with over 25 global manufacturing facilities world over.

Arun is a recipient of E&Y Entrepreneur of the year award in the healthcare sector in 2000. He has also been awarded the Business Today “(Mid- Sized Companies Category)” ) and the “Best CEO in the Pharma & Healthcare Industry” in 2014.

Ankur Thadani Non-Executive Director

Mr. Ankur Thadani is a Principal at TPG Growth, based in Mumbai. He joined TPG in 2013 and has worked on multiple investments in Healthcare, Energy and Consumer sectors across India and the broader South-Asia region. Ankur also serves on the board of CTSI, Rhea Healthcare, Fourth Partner Energy and Asiri Hospitals. Prior to joining TPG, he worked with an Indian private equity fund, India Equity Partners, focusing on investments in consumer and healthcare sectors. Ankur received his MBA from IIFT, where he was awarded a gold medal for all-round achievement.

Jitesh Devendra Managing Director

Jitesh holds an MBA with specialisation in International Business and Buyer Behaviour; Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from University of Madras, Loyola College, Chennai, and holds a Diploma in Sales & Marketing from National Institute of Sales, Chennai.

Jitesh has more than 22 years of experience in the pharmaceutical space covering API and Formulations. He had the opportunity of leading a B2B as well as a B2C business. The core of his experience is B2B focused on contract development and manufacturing plus out licensing. Jitesh led the North America API business, as well as managed the Formulations P&L business of erstwhile Shasu Pharmaceuticals Limited, which later known as Strides Shasun and now Strides Pharma Science. His efforts have led the division into new markets in North America; maintained business relationships and introduction of new products for out-licensing and partnership.

Vineeta Rai Independent Director

Ms. Vineeta Rai is a former IAS Officer and Revenue Secretary in the Government of India. Vineeta holds a B.A. (Hons) degree in History from Delhi University, B.A. (American History and Politics) from Brandeis University, USA and a visiting Fellow in Public Administration at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University. She was voted as one of the 25 Most Powerful Women in business in India in 2004.

Vineeta has extensive experience in Public Administration, particularly in the fields of Health Administration and Finance with work experience in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India which interalia included Drugs and Prevention of Food Adulteration and as Secretary Banking, Insurance and Revenue in the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. She also served as a Director on the boards of several Banks and Insurance Companies.

An Officer of the 1968 IAS batch of the Union Territories cadre, Vineeta was is the first woman to hold the post of Revenue Secretary in the Ministry of Finance. Vineeta was appointed by WHO as a member of the Global Vaccine Initiative during the period 1990 to Oct 1993. She was also the Mission Director for Immunisation during this period. Vineeta did a five-year stint with the UNFPA from Nov 1993 to March 1999 as the Regional Advisor for Gender Population and Development for South and Central Asia, Iran and Afghanistan.

Post retirement, Vineeta Rai was appointed Member Secretary of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission and thereafter member of the National consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (during 2010 to 2014).

Hariharan ED & CFO

Hariharan is a Cost Accountant with rich and varied experience of more than 30 years in field of Corporate Finance, Accounts and Strategic planning. He played a very important role in the merger process of Shasun with Strides during 2014 and 2015. Also in demerger process of Strides, SeQuent and Solara during 2017 and 2018. He has rich experience in the fields of finance, accounts, secretarial, taxation, legal and information technology functions. He has extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions.

Rajeev Singh Chief Human Resource Officer

Rajeev brings solid and diverse global expertise and experience working for transnational companies in India, the USA, the Middle East, and the U.K. across Energy, Manufacturing & Consulting. He has built a reputation of leading organisational transformation and as a progressive H.R. practitioner.

He joins us from ATC Tires. He was the CHRO and CSR Head, responsible for Human Resource strategy and operations globally. Before ATC, he held the position of President & Global CHRO for Welspun Corp.

Rajeev started his career in Industrial Relations with Bharat Petroleum, Mumbai Refinery before moving to work with PwC, India, and in various leadership roles with B.G. Group (now Shell) in the UK, India, and the Middle East.

Dr Sudhir Nambiar Chief Scientific Officer

Dr Sudhir Nambiar comes with 25 years of experience in API Research & Development, spanning global majors and Indian pharma, both in the innovator and generic space. He has set up and led world class Process Research & Development (API) units in India for Novartis/Sandoz and AstraZeneca. He has been part of cross functional, multi-cultural teams that secured investments for these ventures and has a good understanding of both Indian and global pharmaceutical industry.

He was appointed as the Managing Director of AstraZeneca India Pvt Ltd in 2011 and under his leadership, the group contributed significantly to the process development of Tagrisso, a blockbuster NSCLC drug. Subsequently, he joined Dr Reddy’s Labs as Sr VP and Global Head, API, and developed generic drugs including complex generics. He further moved on as President, Research &Technology, Hikal Ltd, where in addition to generic APIs he developed Custom Pharmaceuticals, as well as Animal Health, Crop Protection and Chemical Specialty Agents. He also commercialized a few continuous and biocatalytic processes.

Sundara Moorthy V Chief Quality Officer

Mr. Sundara Moorthy has done his Post Graduation in Organic Chemistry. He has rich and diversified experience of 24 years in the Quality Management, Regulatory Affairs and Compliance functions. He has worked with major pharmaceutical organisations such as Shasun Pharmaceuticals Limited, Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, Actavis, Neuland Laboratories Limited, Strides Shasun Limited and followed by Solara Active Pharma Sciences Limited. Sundara Moorthy is currently working as Chief Quality Officer and heading the overall Quality Management & Regulatory Affairs functions of the Company. All the Site Quality functions, Development QA, Corporate QA and Regulatory Affairs functions are reporting to him.

Mohan Muthunarayanan Chief Operations Officer

Mohan is a Chemical Engineering Graduate from Annamalai University. In 20+ years of professional career he has held various leadership roles in Operations, heading the API & Formulations for Shasun and Solara.

He has also provided entrepreneur consulting to pharmaceutical companies in designing & implementing large projects on setting up manufacturing plants. Mohan has rejoined Solara in 2019 as Cluster Head for 2 Pondy & Vizag sites and has led operations through transformative growth. Mohan is currently working as Chief Operations Officer heading the manufacturing operations of the company.