Experienced thought-leader in the Industrial Bio-tech Segment, propagating Sustainable solutions using Enzymes and microbes across the SAARC countries with Global market exposure. In-depth knowledge and vast experience in Organizational Strategy, Business development, Leadership development, Mergers & acquisitions, Innovation & application development and General Management experience in a multinational environment. With this exposure, knowledge and experience, looking forward to contributing towards the growth of India’s Biotechnology sector and develop to become the largest Bioeconomy in the world.

After a 27-year tenure at Novonesis until March 2019 (formerly Novozymes South Asia Pvt. Ltd.), managed the Indian operations in the role as Managing Director and Regional President. Chaired the Board of the Indian entity and the India Leadership team. Currently engaged as an Independent Director, Consultant/Advisor across various Biotech Industries and also mentor a few upcoming leaders.
~ Director, External stakeholder relations – Novonesis (previously Novozymes South Asia Pvt Ltd), Consultant – Novo Holdings A/S – Denmark
~ Advisor – Corbion, India
~ Member - CII Bio Energy Committee,
~ Hon. President - ABLE, (Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprise)
~ Member - Vision Group on Biotechnology, Government of Karnataka,

During his tenure at Novozymes India, spanning 27 Years, led the Indian organization in various areas:
~ Chairman of the Board of Indian entity
~ Chaired the Indian Leadership team evolving the organization Strategy for Novozymes India
~ Played a key role in the strategic acquisition of the Enzyme business of Biocon India and the successful integration
~ Developed the organization from 5 to 625 employees preparing for the future at various stages, establishing a formulation unit, R&D and Application development labs, supporting global and local organisation
~ Established shared service center in India as a viable and efficient off shore activity
~ Successfully established a Green field production facility taking into consideration, the long term business opportunity in India.

Worked closely with external stakeholders and decision makers in the various Regulatory departments to ensure new innovations are approved on a fast track. Played a thought leadership role in ensuring we come to a consensus among all stakeholders to represent to the authorities on Industry demands. Member of various Industry bodies, contributing towards policy advocacy and propagating on the importance of Biotechnological solutions as a viable alternative to protect the environment. Projected on the opportunity in developing the Food, Bio Ag and Bio energy business in India, creating more job opportunities and rural development.

A firm believer in the importance of Sustainable Biotech solutions as the only alternative to address climate change challenges.

Active speaker in Biotech/ Bio Energy forums as an Industry leader. Participated as a speaker at “ECOSOC” at the United Nations, propagating Sustainable Development Goals of Novozymes.

Deepanwita Chattopadhyay, Chairman & CEO, IKP Knowledge Park, developed the first Life Science Research Park in India, in Hyderabad. She pioneered a Hardware Product Incubator and Makerspace, IKP EDEN, in Bangalore and works with Indian and global partners to support over 1400 innovation projects and early startups. Deepanwita is the recipient of the Golden Jubilee Biotech Park Lifetime Achievement Award 2023. She received the Vocational Excellence Award 2023-24 from Rotary Club, Hyderabad Deccan. She was recognized as one of the top 10 Enablers and Champions of the Incubation Ecosystem in India by the Department of Science & Technology, GoI in 2022. She received the FICCI FLO Influential Women Award, 2021 for Outstanding Contribution to the Innovation Ecosystem. In 2018 she was awarded the “Top Women Achievers of the Year 2017 in Asia” by AsiaOne Business Magazine and “Women of the Decade in Life Sciences & Innovation” by the Women Economic Forum. She authored the India Chapter for the Global Innovation Index Report GII 2020.

After brief stints as an engineering faculty at BITS, Pilani, India, a freelance science writer for children, Deepanwita joined the ICICI Bank in 1994 in the telecom practice of ICICI Advisory Services Division.

She worked in telecom regulation and policy and advised the government and the private sector on telecom regulation, market forecasts and market entry strategies. She was deputed to IKP Knowledge Park (then ICICI Knowledge Park) as its CEO in August 2001. What followed in the next two decades and more was
 
Deepanwita’s deep engagement in the development of innovation ecosystems.

Deepanwita took over as the Chair of IKP in November 2015. She is a Director on the Boards of IKP, IKP Trust, IKP Ventures, Research & Innovation Circle of Hyderabad (RICH) and AIC-CCMB, and the President of IKP EDEN. She is also the Chair and Co-Founder of a startup, Support Elders Pvt. Ltd.

Deepanwita is a member of the Global Advisory Council and the immediate past Treasurer of the International Association of Science Parks (IASP) with its global headquarters in Malaga, Spain. She is on the Research Council of the Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB), on the Executive Council of AGNIi (Accelerating Growth of New India’s Innovations), Board of Governors of the Society for Technology Management (STEM) and on the Governing Council of several Incubators in India. She is a member of several National level committees of the Government including the S&T Cluster Apex Committee under the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Govt. of India, Committee of the Prime Minister’s Fellowship for Doctoral Research, DST, GoI, Consultative Committee of S&T and Innovation in NITI Aayog and the Committee on Biotech Parks and the National Biodesign Consortium of the Department of Biotechnology, GoI.

Dr. Ezhil Subbian serves as the CEO of String. As one of the world leaders in gas fermentation, String’s proprietary platform enables biomanufacturing of sustainable ingredients from greenhouse gases, for sectors fundamental to living including, food, agriculture and environment. String’s vision is to redefine manufacturing and make sustainability market relevant.

Prior to String, Ezhil played key roles in biobased product innovation at different early-stage companies in the Silicon Valley ecosystem. Building on her experience over the last 20 years in biobased product commercialization and market growth, Ezhil’s drive is to leverage the technology prowess of the west and the manufacturing capabilities of the east to develop sustainable innovations that can have global impact.

Ezhil’s work was most recently recognized with the Women Transforming India Award 2018 from United Nations and NITI Aayog.

Ravi is the Managing Partner at Intellectual Property (IP) Law firm, K&S Partners.

He is practicing IP for more than two decades now. His focus areas are patents and designs. He has drafted and prosecuted large number of patent cases in diverse areas of technology. Apart from the above, he is actively involved in complex advisory and contentious matters. He is a certified Patent Valuation Analyst and enjoys working with exciting startups, and mentors a few.

Ravi provides pro bono support to a few charitable trusts and has set up Ossi Foundation along with his wife Anchal to help the underprivileged.

Ashvini, a seasoned professional at Praj Industries Limited, Pune, leads Strategy & Technology development for Renewable Chemicals & Materials. She's driven by sustainability, delving into renewable chemicals production for combating plastic pollution. Her commitment to green solutions aligns with her concern for environmental impact.

Beyond her passions, Ashvini shapes Praj's strategic path in Renewable Chemicals & Materials.
She's pivotal in commercializing state-of-the-art technologies, cementing Praj's dedication to sustainability. Continually pioneering change, Ashvini champions sustainable innovation, leaving an indelible mark in her field.

Manohar is the MD & CEO of Stempeutics – a leading stem cell research and product development Company based out of Bangalore, India. Manohar has transformed Stempeutics – a life science start-up from R&D to Commercialization stage with Global recognitions.

Company’s novel product “Stempeucel®” has been granted manufacturing and marketing approval for the treatment of Critical Limb Ischemia (CLI) and Knee Osteoarthritis (OA) by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI). Stempeucel® becomes the first allogeneic cell therapy product to be approved for commercial use in India and the first stem cell product to be approved Globally for CLI indication. Over 20 countries including US, UK, Japan & China has granted patent for the novelty and inventiveness of the drug. Europe has recognized this drug by granting Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product classification and Orphan Drug Designation. Stempeutics has put India on the “World map of Regenerative Medicine”. Under Manohar’s leadership Stempeutics has established marketing partnership with Pharma Companies Cipla and Alkem Labs.

Stempeutics has been recognized as India’s hottest startups by Business Today in 2008 and Karnataka Government bestowed “Emerging Company of the Year award” in 2011 and 2013. In 2017 Manohar was awarded “Biotechnologist of the Year” award by Wockhardt Foundation, India. In 2018 Stempeutics received “Top 25 most innovative Company” award from CII. Manohar has raised more than US $25M by establishing strategic alliance with Cipla and with Kemwell Biopharma. 

Jayashree holds a Ph.D in Immunology from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and has pursued her post-doctoral research at the California Institute of Technology and the University of California at Irvine. She has over 20 years of global experience as a molecular pharmacologist and has been associated with leading global organizations like AstraZeneca, Merck, Ambrx Inc. and Theravance. She has more than 30 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters to her credit. At Syngene, Jayashree leads a team of 700 scientists to support drug discovery of small and large molecules as well as cell and gene therapy.

Krishna Kalyan is presently the Executive Director & COO of Laurus Bio Pvt. Ltd.

He is a senior leader with extensive experience in achieving business excellence in biotech and technology industries. His primary area of expertise incudes corporate strategy, large scale manufacturing and business process optimization. He has led cross-functional high-performance teams in early stage and large organizations across geographies.

Krishna Kalyan holds a M.S by Research degree in Management from IIT Madras. 

Sanjeev is presently the Managing Director of Yokogawa Technology Solutions.

He has good experience in New Business Incubation, Business Development, and leading Global Business R&D Centers. Working on building New Business in New Market and in New Industry segment around Bio, Digital Technology, Decarbonization, ISWM, and Alternate Energy.

He is well connected with Industry association, Academia, Research institutes, VC's & start-up ecosystem.

Sanjeev has a strong background in Global Program management, Operations Management, People & Technical leadership and Quality assurance with an outstanding track record in leading projects from initial concept phase through final Deployment.

Shriram, presently the senior vice president at Jananom, India’s first company to offer Synthetic biology as a service (Saas), has over 2 decades of experience in building 6 start- ups in life sciences and operated in 28 countries around the world.  He lends his support to more than 60 startups along the east coast of India and advises many technology incubators including Golden Jubilee Biotech Park Chennai, KIIT-TBI Bhubaneshwar, a-Idea-Naarm, Hyderabad, VIT, Vellore, RCB-BSC Faridabad, VCR Park, Vizag. He is also on boards of some of the investment committees for startups.
He is now part of AICTE committee to formulate a model curriculum for B.Tech courses in Biotechnology.

He has a Masters in biochemical engineering, M.Phil and Ph.D in computational systems biology, MBA in international business with focus on transfer pricing for biotechnology intangibles, a certified “Key Executive Professional” from Harvard Business School in Boston, USA.

Sowmya is the Co-founder and Chief Business Officer at Sea6 Energy. She graduated with a Major in Biotechnology, and later went on to pursue an Executive Management program from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. She has over 12+ years of experience in International Sales & Marketing and has established business in more than 20+ countries. She has been accredited with several awards including being featured in the “Top 50 women in Biotech” in India, World Economic Forum Davos 2023, GP ORF in green and Science category and also received a special mention in Forbes “30 under 30”- India edition.

Vasan brings 20+ years of professional experience in vaccine and drug development at Novartis, AstraZeneca, and Biocon. At these organizations, he provided strategic direction, and orchestrated major business operations to develop affordable medicines across oncology, diabetes, infectious diseases and inflammation.

Most recently, he was the Chief Executive Officer of DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance, a global funding agency promoting basic, biomedical and clinical research across India.

He has 50+ publications in peer-reviewed international journals and co-inventor on 4 patents.

Mr. Venkat Kamalakar Bundla is the Founder Managing Director of Garphi Biosciences. A B.Pharm (Hons) and MBA, Venkat has 3 plus decades of extensive and diverse experience in consulting, operations & general management. He has demonstrated success in leadership roles and has a wide experience in working and supporting Business and R&D of Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology companies globally. After exceling in Leadership positions with increasingly progressive mandates, for several large pharmaceutical organizations, where he played a vital role across wide geographies - Americas, Asia, Europe and globally, he co-founded Garphi Biosciences.

He is also invested in many a cutting-edge start-up in the Pharma & Technology space and is actively involved in policymaking and strategic planning initiatives for these startups.

Widely travelled and networked with good connections in the industry, Venkat brings to the table, a strong techno-commercial and operational expertise. His extensive experience of being on both sides of the negotiation table in several multi- million-dollar global deals adds immense value to the organizations which seek his advice and guidance to mentor their new age leaders in the upcoming ventures.

His uncanny ability to understand the interests of the company with greater objectivity and his intent to challenge the direction and performance of the companies & its teams ensures the interests of corporate stakeholders are well protected before the priorities of the Managements or Boards. He has a knack of taking a deep look into the financials of the company to verify fiscal responsibility and to put necessary controls in place if required.

Venkat is also an active Angel Investor and is the board member & adviser for a number of Life Science companies in India, Europe and USA.

An avid golfer, he is affiliated to many Industry bodies and is a regular speaker at various events organized by Academia & industry in India and abroad.

Currently he serves on the Boards of ABLE (Association of Biotechnology led Enterprises) India & TiE Hyderabad.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is a pioneering biotech entrepreneur, a healthcare visionary, a global influencer, and a passionate philanthropist. As a leading woman in science, she is a role model to millions. She is steadfast in her pursuit of innovative technologies that enable affordable access to healthcare, and is committed to making a difference to billions of lives globally.

She has scripted a hugely successful entrepreneurial story by building Biocon, an innovation-led global biopharmaceuticals enterprise, which has made outstanding contributions to life sciences & research, and generated global respect for India.

Kiran has received several coveted awards, honours and titles, both national and international, in recognition of her inspiring achievements.

National Honours:

• •  Padma Bhushan (2005)
• •  Padma Shri (1989)

Key International Recognitions:

• •  EY World Entrepreneur of the Year (2020)
• •  Order of Australia, Australia’s Highest Civilian Honour (2020)
• •  Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Legion d’Honneur (Knight of the National Order of the French Legion of Honour), France’s Highest Civilian Award (2016)
• •  AWSM Award for Excellence, The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, U.S. (2017)
• •  Othmer Gold Medal, Chemical Heritage Foundation, U.S. (2014)
• •  Global Economy Prize for Business, Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Germany (2014)

Global Influencer:

• •  Member, National Academy of Engineering (NAE), U.S.
• •  Full-term Member, MIT Corporation, the board of trustees of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
• •   Vice Chair, Global Board of Directors, U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC)
• •   Honorary member, US Pharmacopeial Convention (USP)
• •  Global Alumni Ambassador by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia
• •  First Business Ambassador to South Asia, for the State of Victoria, Australia.

Global Rankings:

• •  First and only Self-Made Woman Billionaire from India; Ranked No. 22 by Forbes on world list (2017)
• •  TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World (2010)
• •  World’s 100 Most Powerful Women; Ranked No. 65 by Forbes (2019)
• •   Ranked No. 1 in Business Captains category on Medicine Maker Power List (2018)
• •   Fierce Biotech’s list of World’s 25 Most Influential People in Biopharma (2012)

Board Memberships:

• •  Narayana Health: A large hospital chain recognised for providing affordable access to world class healthcare www.narayanahealth.org

Compassionate Capitalist:

• •  Second business leader from India to sign the Giving Pledge, an initiative of the Gates Foundation, committing to give the majority of her wealth to philanthropic causes.

In addition to her formal qualifications as a brew master, Kiran holds honorary degrees from several renowned international universities.

Prof. Murali, is the Chairman of Jananom Group of companies. Has over three decades of experience as CEO of companies.  Prof. Murali’s current focus is on Live biotherapeutics in the cutting-edge synthetic biology & pharmaceutical space and nutrition products that favor good gut and metabolic health. Last served as a founding management member, CEO, and Managing Director of the Swiss International Company Evolva Biotech which he took public in the Swiss stock exchange - nurtured Public-Private partnerships in India. 

Prof. Murali Founded & Directed the R&D team at the Dalmia Centre for Research where he pioneered many plant-only formulations and launched them successfully post all 4 phases of rigorous clinical trials. 

Prof. Murali is the Hon. President of the Council of Presidents for ABLE, which is the face of the Indian Biotech Industry and currently serves on its Executive Committee. He also serves as the Hon. Chairman for the Women’s Biotech Park in Tamil Nadu, a unique and pioneering initiative of the Government to promote women entrepreneurs in biotechnology.

Prof. Murali also serves in the Karnataka Vision group of Biotechnology and also advises several state governments on policies. Prof. Murali is a keen follower of Indian Biodiversity issues and has represented the Industry with the National Biodiversity Authority on a number of key issues.

His social work includes his work at the Indian Red Cross, where he presently serves as the Hon. Vice Chairman, and his own family trust Parambariyam Seva Trust helping in the education of girl children in southern Tamil Nadu. His focus is always on the welfare of girl children with disabilities and orphans to whom he provides education and support.

Prof. Murali has a Ph.D in Microbiology from Madurai Kamaraj University and two degrees in Doctor of science with more than 100 publications & patents and awards. Has produced 10 Ph. D students.

KK is an academician turned entrepreneur, who is trained as a plant breeder and molecular biologist. He graduated with a Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Genetics from the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India, and later on went on to do a post-doctoral stint at the Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University under a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship.

Returning to India, he started his career as a scientist at the SPIC Science Foundation, Chennai before moving on to lead the Crop Transformation and Functional Genomics programme at the Monsanto Research Centre at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. In 2002, he co-founded Metahelix Life Sciences, a Bangalore-based Agbiotech Company that is focused on developing technologies for crop improvement. He was its Managing Director, till it was acquired by Rallis India Limited, a TATA group Company in 2016, by when it was one of the leading Ag-tech companies in the country. He later co-founded and Chaired the Board of Kottaram Agro-Foods, a food technology enterprise which makes packaged food products under the brand name SOULFULL using traditional Indian grains like Ragi. This Company was also recently acquired by TATA Consumer Products Limited.

Narayanan has been a member of several committees and advisory bodies including several Task Forces and Working Groups of the DBT, Government of India. He is a member of the “Vision Group” on Biotechnology set up by the State Government of Karnataka. He has been a member of the Executive Council of the Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE), an association of the Indian Biotechnology Industry, and is one of its past-Presidents.

Narayanan is involved with several Government initiatives that promote entrepreneurship and mentors several start-up companies. He is also on Board of several companies engaged in the use of modern technologies for crop and animal improvement. In addition, he is also involved with social and community development projects that leverage agricultural technologies to improve rural incomes and livelihood security.

Vijay Chandru (Ph.D., MIT 1982) is an academic entrepreneur - a professor at Purdue University and the Indian Institute of Science and a co-founder and Executive Chairman of Strand life Sciences from inception in 2000 till 2018. He was recognized as a ‘Technology Pioneer’ by the World Economic Forum in 2006 and one among the 50 Pioneers of Change by India Today magazine in 2008. Chandru is a Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences (1996), winner of MCIT Dewang Mehta Award for Innovation in IT (2001), UGC Hari Om Trust award for “Science and Society” (2003), the President’s Medal of INFORMS in 2006, and the Biospectrum Biotech Entrepreneur of 2007. Chandru co-founded ABLE and served as Honorary President (2009-2012). He returned to the faculty of Indian Institute of Science as a Indian National Academy of Engineering Distinguished Technologist from 2018-2021. He now serves as an Executive Advisor to AI and Robotics Tech Park (ARTPark) at IISc and as the Chair of the Science Advisory Board at Strand.

Shrikumar is the Chairman and co-founder of Sea6 Energy Pvt. Ltd. He was formerly the President of Research and Development at Biocon Limited, Bangalore India (www.biocon.com) and the Chief Scientific Advisor to the company. He was associated with Biocon for over 25 years.

His other appointments include an Adjunct Professorship at the Department of Biotechnology at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He is also a member of Governing & Advisory boards of several institutes and centers promoted by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India and served as the Chief Executive officer for the Translational Health Sciences Institute at the National Capital Region Biosciences Cluster, Government of India from 2009-2010.

Shrikumar has a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of technology, Madras and a Master's degree in Biochemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of technology Delhi. In 2001, he was awarded the Biotechnology Process Development award of the Government of India and in 2009 he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Dr. S.R. Rao, former Senior Advisor in DBT , Ph.D. with Post-doctoral experience in USA, Australia and Japan. In DBT gained experience in promoting and managing R&D across agricultural medical and animal biotechnology. He specializes in core and cross-sectorial policy issues of Biotechnology development, one health policies, rDNA regulations, biosafety and biosecurity related novel biotechnologies applicable to plants, animal, human medicine and. He contributed immensely to regulatory guidelines of biosimilars; recombinant vaccines; biosafety containment and gene therapy As a Chairman of FSSAI Technical Committee instrumental in drafting guidelines foods and food ingredients derived from genetic engineered crops including labeling policies. He published 50 research papers in national/international Journals, two books each on Animal Vaccines and Biotechnology in Asian countries. He visited more than 50 countries on scientific and official matters and made about 120 scientific and technical presentations in cutting edge areas of biological sciences. Currently as Vice President, at Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth University Pondicherry is promoting research, innovation and development.

Dr. Malathi Lakshmikumaran has more than 30 years of experience in the field of biochemistry and Molecular Biology with an expertise in plant genomics, DNA fingerprinting and genetic transformation.

Dr. Malathi serves as a Executive Director and heads the life science group at the IP division of the firm. She is a registered patent agent and has been actively engaged in preparing, filing and prosecuting of patent applications, both in India and abroad. She mainly works on pharmaceutical, chemical and biotechnological patent applications. She advises clients on plant variety protection and registration. She is actively involved in the area of Biodiversity and Traditional knowledge.

Dr. Malathi has successfully supervised several Ph.D. students in the area of Plant Molecular Biology. She has more than 100 publications to her credit in various International and Indian journals.

Prior to joining the firm, she served as the Head, Centre for Bioresource & Biotechnology Division in The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI) for a period of 17 years.

EDUCATION

• Pune University
  Masters (Biochemistry)
• PhD in Biochemistry
• Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences

AWARDS

• Recipient of National science talent scholarship
• Recipient of the prestigious Fogarty Visiting Research Associate ship from National Institute of Health, Bethesda, USA
• Recipient of the National Young Women Scientist Award by Department of Biotechnology in March 2000

SERVICES OFFERED

• Patents
• Prior art search
• Freedom to practice searches
• Novelty assessment
• Patent Invalidation
• Patent and technology landscaping
• Patent litigation
• Plant Variety Protection (PVP)
• PVP litigation

An Electronics Engineer by training had an illustrious career in Research, Marketing and business development. His Journey on environment protection and Alternative Energy started in 1986 and is now completely devoted to Bio Energy program. He Chaired the Task force on Biofuels in Karnataka. He later was made the Chairman of Karnataka State Bio fuel development Board with the rank of a Minister. He is now playing a key role at All India level in promoting Biofuels as a member Expert (Chairman between June2015- June 2018) on the Working group on Biofuels, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural gas; Government of India. He has been instrumental in drafting the National Biofuel Policy 2018 and many Bio fuel initiatives in India. He has also played a catalytic role in formation of Indo –EU cooperation in Advanced Bio Fuels and in formation of Bio Future platform.

Dr. Bagyaraj is a renowned agricultural microbiologist. He has been an Expert Committee Member of several funding agencies like ICAR, DST, DBT, etc. and AICAR (Australia), IFS (Sweden), UNEP, FAO. He has received several national awards and honours. He has been invited to deliver lectures/ evaluate projects on mycorrhiza in several countries. Recently Asian Mycological Congress held at Japan conferred the "Distinguished Asian Mycologist Award 2019” to him. He is a Fellow of most of the National Academies in the country like INSA, NASI, NAAS, NABS, etc. He is the only scientist from India invited by European Commission to contribute on mycorrhizal fungi for the Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas which was released in 2016 at Belgium. Honouring his contributions a mycorrhizal fungus has been named as Glomus bagyarajii.