Ajith Kamath, PhD is an Executive Director at Mitra Biotech, India. He was a former Head, External R&D Innovation- India, Worldwide R&D, Pfizer Inc. He obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Indian Institute of Science and carried out postdoctoral studies at the University of Texas- Austin and Stanford University. In 1993, Ajith joined Pfizer’s R&D center in the US and worked there for 13+ years. In 2007, Ajith returned to India and joined Jubilant Biosys as VP and Head of the Structural Biology department. He managed a 35-member team, delivered a large number of ligand-bound protein structures and impacted many drug discovery programs for various clients. Ajith was promoted to Sr. VP in 2011 and in this role he also oversaw many drug discovery programs and successfully delivered one clinical candidate. He rejoined Pfizer in 2012 to explore opportunities to partner with Indian pharma companies. Ajith evaluated many assets, technologies and successfully initiated a few collaborations with Indian companies and academia. Ajith has co-authored 35 publications, presented at many international conferences and received several awards, including Pfizer’s PGRD Achievement Award and Jubilant’s Leadership Awards.

Anula Jayasuriya, MD, PhD is a life science venture capitalist. She is the co-founder of the Evolvence India Life Science Fund (EILSF), established in 2006 to make investments in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and related contract service companies based in India. She was previously a partner with Skyline Ventures in Palo Alto, and prior to that with the German-US venture capital firm TVM, in San Francisco. Anula received a BA from Harvard summa cum laude, and an MD and PhD (in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics) from Harvard Medical School. She interned in Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and received an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School. Anula also has a M. Phil. in pharmacology from the University of Cambridge, England.

Chakk Ramesha, PhD brings industry experience in drug discovery, high throughput screening, biochemistry and pharmacology. For 25 years at Syntex and Roche, Dr. Ramesha led a laboratory (6-8 scientists, PhDs, research associates, graduate student and interns) that conducted research focused on identification and characterization of drug candidates for multiple disease targets. The work included evaluating new technologies for compound screening and profiling, developing biochemical and cellular assays, automation, high and lower through put screening. Following the closure of the Roche Palo Alto campus in 2010, Dr. Ramesha co-founded Medhus Bio, Inc. a life sciences research company in Mountain View, California. The main focus of Medhus Bio is to develop value adding new technologies and reagents for drug discovery and diagnostic research as well as to provide contract drug discovery services. In addition, for the last 12 years he has been conducting Drug Discovery workshop at University of California Santa Cruz extension. He has one issued and several pending US patents. He has more than 50 publications and review articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Lee Mhatre, PhD is a clinical psychologist in the areas of women's issues, anxiety and stress in the work place, depression, and conflict resolution She also founded a management consulting firm, working with companies on issues of human relations, strategic planning, group dynamics, and sexual discrimination. Among her many achievements, she worked in Israel improving educational standards for immigrants, as Chairman of the Psychology Department at Indiana University, South Bend Campus, and on the faculty of the Business School, Webster University based in Geneva, Switzerland where she taught graduate courses related to business management and psychology. After moving to California, in addition to private practice, she produced a TV series called Women of Achievement. Dr. Mhatre received her Ph.D. from Denver University, Colorado in Clinical Psychology and an MBA from Webster University, Geneva, Switzerland in Business Management.

Mahendra G. Shah, Ph.D. is a highly successful pharmaceutical entrepreneur and executive who has been at Vivo Capital since March 2010. He is also the founder and executive chairman of Semnur Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Shah currently serves as chairman of the board of Essentialis Therapeutics, board member of Biotie Therapies (NASDAQ: BITI), and a member of the board of trustees of St. John’s University. He is also a board member and charter member of EPPIC and a charter member of TIE. From September 2005 to December 2009, he was the founder, chairman and CEO of NextWave Pharmaceuticals, a pediatric focused specialty pharmaceutical company, which was sold to Pfizer for a total of $700 million in pfront and milestone payments. From 1993 to May 2003 he was the chairman and CEO of First Horizon Pharmaceuticals, a publicly traded specialty pharmaceutical company, where he raised over $200 million and built a highly profitable company before it was sold to Shionogi Pharmaceuticals for $1.4 billion. From 1991 to October 1999, he was vice president of E. J. Financial Enterprises, Inc., which manages a fund that invests in healthcare companies. He previously served on the boards of Unimed Pharmaceuticals (UMED), Introgen Therapeutics (INGN), Inpharmakon, Protomed, Structural Bioinformatics, and Zarix. From 1987 to 1991 he was the senior director of new business development with Fujisawa USA (Astellas). Prior to that time he worked in various scientific and management positions with Schering-Plough and Bristol Myers-Squibb. Dr. Shah received his Ph.D. in industrial pharmacy from St. John’s University and his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Pharmacy from L.M. College of Pharmacy in Gujarat, India.

Pallu Reddanna obtained his Ph.D. from S. V. University (1979); Exchange visitor (1984-87) and The Rockefeller Foundation Biotechnology Awardee (Summers of 1992-95) at Penn State University; visiting scientist at Institute of Biochemistry, Humboldt University, Berlin (1993) and Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University (1995). Founder Director of National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (2010 to 2014), autonomous institute of the Department of biotechnology, Government of India. Currently Dean-in-charge of the School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad. The main focus of his research is on inflammation biology leading to the discovery and development of anti-inflammatory drug candidates targeting lipoxygenase and cyclooxygenase pathways. Guided 40 students for Ph.D and around 150 students for M.Sc/M.Tech projects; Published around 200 papers in peer reviewed journals. Conducted 25 projects funded by agencies like DST, DBT, CSIR, UGC, ICMR and Indo-US and from Pharma and biotech companies like Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Dabur, Indian Immunologicals, Shantha Biotech, Natco Pharma, Onconova Therapeutics, Surya Pharmaceuticals, Celestial Labs, Laila Impex etc. He is the recipient of “Pharmabio Excellency Award” from Chemtech Foundation, “Outstanding Scientist for the benefit of Industry” from Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FAPCCI) and “Best Research Project Award” by Royan International Foundation.

Sara Kenkare-Mitra, PhD is currently Senior Vice President of Development Sciences, a translational sciences organization that spans R&D at Genentech. In this role she has responsibility for ensuring the successful translation of promising molecule-discoveries from Research into Development. Sara has had a significant impact on the development of a number of biologics and small molecules leading to Genentech's key product approvals including Avastin, Tarceva, Lucentis, Xolair, Erivedge, Perjetta and Kadcyla. In addition, more than 50 Investigational New Drug applications with potential to treat a multitude of diseases in particular cancer, have been filed by her organization with US and ex-US regulatory agencies. Sara also holds adjunct faculty positions at UCSF in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences and the University of the Pacific in Stockton. Sara was elected to the Institute of Medicine, National Academy in 2014. Selected as one of the 150 Most Influential Business women by San Francisco Business times in 2011, one of the 150 top alumni of UCSF in 2015. Sara serves on the board of directors of the Genentech foundation, a US based private charitable foundation.

Sunil Eraballi, MBA is a founder of Frontier Technology, Inc., Fremont, CA. He volunteers at a number of non-profit organizations such as Bio-Pharma networking organization EPPIC where he was the past president. He received his undergraduate degree from Osmania University, Hyderabad and his MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur, India.