Board of Directors

Ferzaan Engineer, PhD, is Co-founder and Chairman of Cytecare Hospitals Pvt Ltd. He is also a Director on the Board of Cytespace Research Pvt Ltd. Until 2010, Ferzaan served as Chairman & CEO of Quintiles India and was a member of the Asia-Pacific Management Board of Quintiles. He has also served on the Board of Cenduit LLC. He is a member of the Advisory Board of Chiratae Ventures. A pharmacy graduate from the LM College in Ahmedabad, Ferzaan completed his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the College of Pharmacy at the University of South Carolina (USA). He attended executive management programmes at the Kenan-Flagler Business School (USA), IIMA (India) and INSEAD (France). Ferzaan previously worked as Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the United States, followed by an industry position as Vice President, R&D for Core Healthcare (later Claris Life Sciences). Ferzaan has been a member of professional bodies such as AAPS and AACP. He won the AACP New Investigator’s Award in 1990 and received research grants from the National Institutes of Health. He has published papers in leading international journals and lectured at several international conferences and at management schools including IIMA and the Judge Business School at Cambridge University. He has served on the Advisory Board of the Indian Society for Clinical Research (ISCR) and has been a member of the CII National Committee on Drugs and Pharmaceuticals and the FICCI Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology Committee.

Bhavna Doshi, independent director of the Company, has experience of over 30 years in the fields of taxation, accounting, restructuring and allied subjects. She is a qualified chartered accountant and also holds Masters Degree in Commerce from Mumbai University. She is former partner of full member firm of KPMG in India. She is serving as independent director on the boards of several listed companies. She is actively associated with activities of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and has served for four terms as elected Member of the Council and participated in formulation of accounting standards and research projects. She is the only person from India to serve as a Member of the Compliance Advisory Panel of the International Federation of Accountants headquartered in New York. She has served on the Government Accounting Standards Advisory Board constituted by Comptroller and Auditor General of India. Ms.Doshi was the President of the Indian Merchants' Chamber (IMC), a leading trade and industry Chamber in 2011-12. She also served as President of Ladies' Wing of the Chamber which works towards women empowerment. She has served as member of committees of CII and ASSOCHAM and was also a member of Group constituted by the Tax Administration Reforms Commission chaired by Parthasarathy Shome in 2014. She is also associated with various social sector projects.

Dr. Rajamannar Thennati is highly experienced and qualified in the field of Pharmaceutical Research & Development and an inventor in several research areas. He has completed M. Sc. from University of Madras, Ph.D in Organic Chemistry from IIT Madras and Post-Doctoral from University of Zurich, Switzerland. He has filed over 250 patent applications and has 37 research publications in international journals. Several of his innovations were commercialised successfully and some of them were licensed.  Further, he has recently filed one of the fastest IND from India in 30.5 months by HISHS research group (High impact innovations - sustainable health solutions), in the therapeutic area of metabolic disorders, addressing diabetes, obesity & fatty liver disorders. Drug discovery projects directed by Dr Rajamannar while in SPARC are in phase 2 and phase 3 development in the areas of immunology and oncology, likely to have significant patient benefit with unmet medical need. Dr. Rajamannar was invited to deliver Dr. J. C. RAY oration lecture at Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata 2023. He is a recipient of Sir U N Brahmachari Award in 2021.   Dr. Rajamannar is a Chairman, Academic Planning and Development Committee, NIPER, Kolkata, Former Research Council Chairperson of CSIR-IICT, Hyderabad, Member, Research Council, CSIR-NCL Pune, & CSIR-IICB, Kolkata. Member, Board of Governors of NIPER, Mohali. Expert committee member of CSIR Drug Discovery Research Programs; Domain Expert on development of mission mode project on active pharmaceutical ingredients for affordable health care, APIs-AHC, CSIR and Governing Council Member of Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC, DST). He was invited to the formulation of India’s 5th National Science Technology & Innovation Policy, STIP2020, on Industrial Research & Innovation.   Dr. Rajamannar has delivered several lectures at National and International Conferences. He was a faculty for Ph.D Course work program in Organic Chemistry at NCL, Pune, also a Program Advisory Committee (PAC) member of DST-SERB (Science & Engineering Research Board). He was invited to be an Expert Review Panel Member, at Departments of Chemistry IIT, Chennai (2013) and IIT, Delhi (2014).  His Professional Membership includes American Diabetes Association (ADA), European Association for the study of Diabetics (EASD), European Association for the Study of Liver (EASL), Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI), Chemical Biology Society of India, and American Chemical Society (ACS).

Mr. Sudhir V. Valia is a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and carries more than three decades of experience in taxation and finance. He has been a director of Sun Pharma since the inception of the company and is also on the board of Taro Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Mr. Valia has won CNBC TV18's CFO of the Year award in the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Sectors for two consecutive years (2011 and 2012). He has also been awarded the Adivasi Sevak Puraskar (2008-09) by the Government of Maharashtra for his contribution towards the welfare of tribals, particularly in the field of education in his capacity as Director of the Shantilal Shanghvi Foundation.

Dilip Shanghvi is the Chairman and Non-Executive Director of Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company Ltd and is also the Managing Director of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (Sun Pharma), world's 4th largest and India's No. 1 specialty generic pharmaceutical company. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2016 for his distinguished contribution to the Indian Trade & Industry. In January 2018, the Indian Government appointed Mr Shanghvi to the Reserve Bank of India's 21-member central board committee. He is part of the Economic Advisory Council formed by the Government of Maharashtra to achieve rapid and comprehensive development in the state. The Government of Gujarat appointed him as the Chairman of Gujarat Biotechnology University in 2022. Mr. Shanghvi has been conferred with many awards and recognitions. Mr. Sanghvi was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at IFBA 2022. In 2020 & 2021 India Today magazine included him in its annual Power List of 50 influential personalities in India. Some of the other awards/recognitions bestowed on him include Entrepreneur of the Year by All India Management Association (2017), NDTV Business Leader of the Year (2015), Forbes Entrepreneur for the year (2014), Economic Times’ Business Leader of the Year (2014), CNN IBN’s Indian of the Year - Business (2011), Business India's Businessman of the Year (2011) and Ernst and Young's World Entrepreneur of the Year (2011). He has also been awarded the Economic Times' Entrepreneur of the Year (2008), Business Standard’s CEO of the Year (2008) and CNBC TV 18's First Generation Entrepreneur of the Year (2007) He is a former President of Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) and has also served as the chairman of the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Technology (Bombay). He is a former trustee of the Rhodes Scholarship Program at Oxford University. In 2019, he was conferred with an honorary doctorate by the Tel Aviv University, Israel’s largest and most comprehensive institution of higher learning.

Dr. Spiegel has over 30 years of extensive R&D and operational experience in biopharmaceuticals including Big Pharma, biotech, and academic startups as well as advisory roles with venture capital and private equity. Dr Spiegel was Director of the Developmental Therapeutics Program at NYU Medical Center and then spent over 25 years at Schering-Plough where he joined as the first Director for Oncology Clinical Research. He subsequently held a series of senior executive positions, including Senior Vice President for worldwide Clinical Research and Chief Medical Officer. During his time at Schering-Plough he took numerous drug candidates through clinical development and was involved with over 30 NDA approvals. Since 2011 Dr. Spiegel has been a consultant to the biotech industry and has served on the Scientific Advisory Board and Board of Directors of multiple biotech companies. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Geron Corp, Cyclacel Therapetics, Ayala Pharmaceuticals, and Athenex. He is currently the president of Spiegel Consulting LLC and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. He is also a Senior Advisor to the private equity firm Warburg Pincus and an Advisor to the Israel Biotech Fund. Dr. Spiegel received his B.A. from Yale University and his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his specialty training at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Mark has an extensive experience of over 30 years in the life sciences industry and biotechnology and specialty pharma transactions. Mark is an Advisor and co-founder of Torreya Partners, LLC, a global investment banking firm serving companies in the life sciences industry. Prior to co-founding Torreya, Mark was a Managing Director and head of life sciences investment banking at Citigroup from 2002 to 2005 where he covered global pharmaceutical companies with a focus on large-capitalization players in the US, Europe and Japan. Prior to Citigroup, Mark served as a Managing Director at Robertson Stephens in San Francisco and New York where he was responsible for covering the biotech investment banking sector. During his tenure overseeing the group, he was involved in raising 45% of all biotech dollars raised in the US from 1999-2001. Prior to joining the investment banking group, Mark was a senior biotech research analyst at Robertson Stephens, and was named a Wall Street All-Star Analyst for three years in a row. He began his career at Kidder Peabody as a biotech research associate in 1984 and participated the IPO of Genzyme and the early financings of companies such as Amgen. Mark currently serves on the board of directors of Portage Biotech Inc. Mark also serves on the board of several disease advocacy and philanthropic foundations in the oncology, CNS/neuroscience, and metabolic areas. He is also a strategic advisor to the founder of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

Vidhi Shanghvi is an Economics graduate from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

She is Vice President at Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. and the Head of Consumer Healthcare and Nutrition and India Distribution. She has been with Sun Pharma for over a decade and is an alumna of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Before officially taking charge as Head of the Consumer Division, she worked with the marketing function of Sun Pharma India Business.

She is passionate about mental health and is the founder of Mann Talks, a not-for-profit mental health initiative that focuses on empowering individuals to take charge of their mental health by offering free and holistic mental health solutions.