Our leadership
Praveen Akkinepally Country President & Managing Director
Praveen is an accomplished leader with over 20 years’ experience in multiple countries across Oncology and Biopharmaceuticals. After building his career in the US, he returned to India two years ago to lead AstraZeneca’s Oncology Business Unit, driving strong growth through a patient-centric and collaborative culture. An MBA from the University of Michigan and an MPH from Johns Hopkins complement his global perspective and proven ability to deliver results. Praveen is poised to accelerate AstraZeneca India’s journey of innovation and transformative growth.
Bhavana Agrawal Chief Financial Officer and Director
Bhavana Agrawal is Chief Financial Officer and Director for AstraZeneca India. With over two decades of finance experience across geographies & businesses, Bhavana has recently joined AstraZeneca India.
Amarpreet Kaur Ahuja Country HR Director
Amarpreet heads Human Resources Function for the Commercial organization, Global Innovation Technology Center, R&D group, and the Manufacturing site at AstraZeneca India.
Amita Bhave Director - Regulatory Affairs
Amita, Director of Regulatory Affairs has over 28 years of invaluable experience in the Indian Pharma Industry across multiple domains such as Regulatory Affairs, Medical Support, and Drug Development.
Sandhya Amanna Director - Legal
Sandhya Amanna is the Legal Director for AstraZeneca Pharma India Limited. She oversees our corporate and commercial legal agenda, partnering with business leaders to enable strategic growth while safeguarding the organization through robust governance, business priorities, and counsel on statutory matters, as necessary.
Harish Dash Senior Director, Commercial IT & Digital
Harish Dash is the Head of Commercial IT & Digital for India, where he leads enterprise-wide digital transformation initiatives by leveraging automation, artificial intelligence, and data-driven decision-making processes.
Sandeep Arora Medical Director BBU & RDBU
Dr. Sandeep Arora serves as the Medical Director – Biopharmaceuticals (BBU) & Rare Disease Business Units (RDBU) at AstraZeneca India, bringing over 20 years of comprehensive experience in the pharmaceuticals, vaccines, medical devices, and wider healthcare industry.
Dr. Shashank Srinivasan Medical Director – Oncology Business Unit (OBU)
Dr. Shashank Srinivasan is a Medical Director for Oncology Business Unit (OBU) for AstraZeneca Pharma India Limited. He is a clinical oncologist by training. He joined AstraZeneca in 2024 and has been instrumental in advancing the trust in our science especially in lung and GI cancers, amongst key stakeholders.
Ayush Kumar Agarwal Director- BioPharmaceutical Business Unit
Ayush heads the Biopharmaceutical Business Unit encompassing the Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolism and Respiratory & Immunology business of the organisation.In his last stint as the Director for Commercial Excellence, Ayush led multiple high performing teams across Strategy, Business Development, Retail, and L&D, beyond the SFE & Public Channel (BBU) teams.
Vinay Sharma Business Unit Head- Rare Disease
With a strong track record of creating unique strategies propelling reach and growth, Vinay is responsible for building a roadmap for Rare Disease Business Unit in India, converting opportunities into impact, in tandem with country’s policies and a strong patient advocacy ecosystem.
Aditi Mehta Director of the Oncology Business Unit
She leads our oncology strategy and operations, helping accelerate our impact for patients and partners. With strong business acumen and deep expertise, Aditi drives performance, collaboration, and innovation across the business.
Nitin Bindal Director of Institutional Business & Public Channels
Nitin leads Public Channels at AstraZeneca. His deep therapeutic expertise and enterprise leadership will be instrumental in strengthening our Business & Public Channel potential.
Shikha Mirchandani Chatrath Director – Commercial Excellence, BD & Strategy
Shikha is responsible for building and leading a high-performing Commercial Excellence, BD & Strategy function to support AstraZeneca India for multiple potential future launches across all Therapy Areas.
Venkat Natarajan Director Market Access (MA) India
Venkat Natarajan is a Director Market Access (MA) India. Steering our sustainable access agenda across federal and state ecosystems, leading critical pricing strategy – including confidential pricing models—and strengthening governance for our PSP and PAP programs; advancing private insurance partnerships and securing listings across states, prioritising expanded coverage and new funding pathways to ensure timely, sustainable patient access.
C. N. Ramesh Varadarajan Director- Area Compliance, Asia
Ramesh joined AstraZeneca India in 1993 and has been with the company for three decades now. Being a global pharmaceutical company invested in patient benefit, we need strong yet uniform mechanisms to work with multiple group of stakeholders (internal and external) with similar values to the company while delivering life-saving medicines for patients round the world.
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Sandeep A.V. Director- Site Management & Monitoring
Sandeep is a Director in the SM&M function accountable for delivery of AstraZeneca’s internally delivered studies, specifically the Breast & Lung Cancer trials.
B S Srikanth Site Lead for India Operations
Srikanth is the Site Lead for India Operations at AstraZeneca India in Bangalore. Graduated with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Bangalore University, and over 27 years of experience, he possesses extensive knowledge and expertise in leading manufacturing & operations, areas of procurement, planning, product outsourcing, distribution, and ERP implementation.
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Tapankumar Shah Country Director, Site Management & Monitoring
Tapankumar is the Country Director of SM&M India and the Cluster Head of Asia Area overseeing SM&M teams in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines.