Previous Occupation: Software Engineer
Present Occupation: Account Manager at Novartis
Sector: Pharma
Work Experience: 10 years
Interests – Aviation, Contemporary History, All matters military, Movie & music buff, Geek

Tell us about yourself - your profile, recap your professional life after ISB including your career progression
I joined ISB as a typical "IT profile", having worked with GE in their Global R&D center and Patni Computers prior to that. I joined Novartis from campus in 2004 and have been there since. My various roles at Novartis have been oriented towards providing general management and organizational leadership. My initial role was to establish and operationalize an Informatics group in Mumbai. I then moved onto various internal consulting roles and then leading multiple key global initiatives in areas like organization change management, outsourcing / vendor management, business process re-engineering etc. In between I managed a technology group and also performed an account management role. My last role (based out of Hyderabad) was to lead a global team in a multi-million dollar global initiative in the drug development space. I am currently based in the US office, leading a diverse multi-matrixed worldwide team to implement new Clinical Data Standards in Pharma Development, which is recognized to be industry leading and is bringing about a paradigm shift in the way Novartis manages & analyzes data from its clinical trials.

What was your key take-away from the ISB?
The opportunity to obtain a wider worldview and exposure to things I knew little or nothing about which made me a better rounded individual (no reference to body shapes post copious consumption of food and beer) and a network I can always rely on.  

How do you think the ISB has contributed to your career growth?
The ISB has been very enriching professionally and personally. It gave me tremendous exposure and an understanding of not only various facets of business but also completely reshaped my thought processes. To use a military analogy, it has made me into somewhat of a special forces operative who gets sent to trouble spots to resolve situations. It has given me the ability and confidence to take on different challenges head on, quickly grasping new concepts and ideas, and achieving results. Not one to deeply introspect, a comment by a senior colleague, crystallized it for me - "...you have the ability to grasp concepts quickly, lay out the bigger picture, provide leadership and structure to get things done without knowing too much about them or getting hung up on what you don't know know...."

What is your vision for the School?
My vision for the school is that it is renowned globally for alumni who are recognized leaders in their chosen fields; that it incubates businesses and ideas which change the way we live; that it produces research which is relevant to the Indian as well as the Global context and sets new paradigms; that it always remains a highly stressful and yet the most fun place to be at.

What are the strengths that the School can leverage upon and areas it can improve?
The school is uniquely positioned in various well recognized ways to be at the leading edge. In addition, it now has a growing and increasingly successful alumni body, which should be leveraged more. As a member of the alumni volunteer board and having had the opportunity to get a glimpse at some of the challenges the school faces, I feel that the school should tap into the vast talent pool that the alumni and their network provides in solving some of these challenges.

How do you think alums can associate with the School or alum’s role in building the School?
By showing up in sizeable numbers to support of the annual drives to vet, admit, orient, teach, recruit and detox; By being an ambassador of the school at every opportunity; By contributing in efforts to make the school more relevant to the context of the society it functions in; By pitching in with cash, sweat and muscle when called upon.

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