Management Council

Umang Vohra has been Managing Director and Global Chief Executive Officer (MD &GCEO) of Cipla since September 2016. Umang joined Cipla in October 2015 as its Global Chief Financial Officer, and from January 2016 to August 2016 was Cipla’s Global Chief Operating Officer.

After gaining degrees in engineering, marketing and finance, Umang was associated with companies such as Eicher Motors and PepsiCo. Prior to joining Cipla, Umang was Head of the North America business for Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories. Through his previous roles in India and the USA, he has built a distinguished career spanning almost two decades with deep understanding and experience in various aspects of the global pharmaceutical business.

Under Umang’s leadership, Cipla has built strong momentum in its home markets, augmented its capability, strengthened its core, and shown significant improvement in its operating margin and profitability. At the helm of the Management Council of Cipla, Umang’s big-picture agenda is to define and execute Cipla’s strategic growth roadmap and geographical footprint, identify the next levers of growth, invest in innovation for the future, and build the right organisation. Recognised as an action-oriented industry leader, Umang is a firm believer in the power of agile business models, disruptive technologies, data-driven analytics and a future-ready workforce with a view to shaping the healthcare ecosystem and making a difference to the lives of patients.

Dr. R. Ananthanarayan has been President and Global Chief Operating Officer of Cipla since August 2018. Prior to Cipla, Ananth served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of API, Biologics and the generics B2B business at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd based in the US. He has previously worked with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Piramal Healthcare, Galpharm International, Zydus Cadila, Wockhardt, and Rhône-Poulenc Rorer

A Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Technology from the University of Mumbai, Ananth brings with him three decades of top order leadership experience in the generics pharmaceutical business in managing P&L, Sales & Marketing, Business Development, R&D, manufacturing operations, regulatory affairs, quality assurance, global strategic sourcing, and mergers & acquisitions.

At Cipla, Ananth oversees R&D, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, the geographies of North America, Europe and Emerging Markets and API business. As a member of the Management Council of Cipla, Ananth’s priorities have been the consolidation of Cipla’s product portfolio, revenue and presence in these key markets, ensuring the company’s serviceability and supply security, and strengthening core operations through manufacturing innovations.

Ananth has been a member of the Board of Advisors at the School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at Fairleigh Dickinson University, NJ, USA and has represented the industry at several International workshops and forums on both small molecules and Biologics.

Kedar Upadhye has been Joint President and Global Chief Financial Officer of Cipla since August 2016, heading its Global Finance and Information Technology functions. Prior to joining Cipla, Kedar was Vice President, Finance, and Head of Investor Relations at Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories. He has previously worked with Pepsi India and the Thermax Group. Kedar is a qualified Cost Accountant and Company Secretary, and an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

Kedar is a dynamic people leader with strong domain expertise and thorough understanding of the global pharmaceutical industry. At Cipla, Kedar provides leadership and strategic oversight to multi-locational finance teams operating throughout the globe. He has spearheaded several high-impact organisation-wide projects and practices to enable strategic business partnering, drive efficiencies, cost improvements, analytics, automation, and best practice in governance. Kedar has played a key role in the improvement in the operating margin and profitability of the company in the last three years.

As a member of the Management Council of Cipla, Kedar is an integral part of decisions on identifying levers of growth, strategic acquisitions and divestments, and cost optimisation projects.

In 2018, Kedar was awarded the IMA India CFO Award for Excellence in Cost Management in recognition of the significant improvements and sustainability of practices made in Supply Chain, Operations, General & Administrative spends and various other workstreams. Under his leadership, the Company has been recognised for strengthening its governance practices through the Golden Peacock Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance 2018 by the Institute of Directors, India; the 18th ICSI National Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance from the Institute of Company Secretaries of India; and ranked second for voluntary disclosures on the India Disclosure Index 2018 by FTI Consultants.

Dr. Ranjana Pathak is President - Global Quality, Medical Affairs and Pharmacovigilance at Cipla, has been associated with the organisation for nearly six years. Ranjana has previously held leadership roles in pharmaceutical companies such as Actavis, Endo Pharmaceuticals, Zenith Goldline and Thames Pharmacol.

Ranjana has a Doctorate in Health Administration from the University of Phoenix, USA; an MBA from Dowling College, New York; a Post-Graduate Diploma in Pharmaceutical & Chemical Analysis from Sophia College, Mumbai; and a B.Sc. (Hons) in Chemistry from Mithibai College, Mumbai. She has received training in leadership in pharmaceuticals and biologics at Harvard University.

As a Member of the Management Council at Cipla, Ranjana leads the organisation’s worldwide quality enterprise right from the development of a product to its commercialization, and spearheads Cipla’s commitment to an uncompromising state of control with absolute regulatory compliance across all manufacturing sites of Cipla, its partners and third parties

An industry veteran, Ranjana has over three decades of experience in pharma and brings to the table extensive industry experience in dealing with regulatory bodies around the world. In 2006, Ranjana received the Rising Star award from the Healthcare Business Association. In 2018, she was recognized as Woman Leader of the Year award at the Future Leaders’ Summit. A globally-recognized subject matter expert in pharma quality today, Ranjana has several publications and lectures on the topic to her credit. She is frequently invited as a speaker and panelist to prestigious conferences organized by the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE), Parenteral Drug Association (PDA), the Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association (IDMA), the Pharmaceutical Training International (PTI), among others.

Geena Malhotra has been President and Global Head – Manufacturing Operations and Respiratory Centre of Excellence of Cipla from November 2018. Prior to this role, Geena was Global Head of Integrated Product Development of Cipla from 2013 to 2018. Geena Malhotra completed her Bachelors in Pharmacy in 1985 from Mumbai, and received her Executive MBA degree from Washington University, St. Louis in 2017.

Having joined Cipla in 1986, for well over three decades now, Geena has been a pillar of Research and Development at Cipla. Geena spearheaded Cipla’s use of cutting-edge technology platforms, equipment, drug-device combinations, targeted drug delivery dosage forms in order to fulfill unmet patient needs. Geena has to her credit, a large number of patents in the areas of formulation development and technology in solid oral dosage forms, topical delivery systems and inhalation medical devices. Geena has provided technical leadership to multi-disciplinary Research and Development (R&D) teams within a cross-functional environment to build and deliver a high throughput R&D with technology being the core focus.

As the Head of Operations and Respiratory CoE, and a member of the Management Council of Cipla, Geena’s priorities are Environment, Health & Safety Management, implementation of Good Engineering Practices and Process Efficiency.

She is a recipient of the ‘Eminent Researcher Award’ by the Indian Pharmaceutical Association in 2007. FDD Express Pharma Award for Outstanding Achievement in Formulation Development and Drug Delivery in 2017. She has been also honored by “Indian Glory Award” in 2017 by Indian Friendship Society & “Bharat Ratna Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Excellence Award” in 2018 for outstanding & distinguished services to the nation.

Dr. Raju Mistry has been President and Global Chief People Officer of Cipla since April 2019.

Raju is an accomplished and veteran HR leader with over 27 years of global experience across diverse sectors such as Chemicals, Pharma, FMCG, IT, Engineering and textiles. Prior to Cipla, Raju was Chief Human Resources Officer at Jubilant Life Sciences Ltd. Raju has previously worked with the Aditya Birla Group, Tata Sons, Colgate Palmolive, Siemens, and Mastech Corporation, Canada.

At Cipla, Raju oversees Human Resources, and Administration and Facilities Management.As a member of the Management Council of Cipla, Raju brings to the table her gravitas andexpertise to lead Cipla’s dynamic and ambitious people agenda with a keen focus oncorporate culture, talent, employer brand and leadership development.