Dr. Michael McGeary brings over three decades of experience in the global chemicals industry, with a strong focus on custom manufacturing of specialty chemicals and intermediates for pharmaceutical and industrial applications. His career spans leadership roles across business development, marketing, technical sales, and executive management at leading organizations including FAR Chemical, WeylChem, and Sigma-Aldrich.
He has consistently driven strategic growth, closed multi-million-dollar deals, and built long-term relationships with pharma and specialty polymer clients.
With a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry and an MBA in Management, Dr. McGeary combines deep scientific expertise with strong commercial insight. His experience will play a key role in strengthening LAXAI’s global partnerships and advancing its integrated drug discovery, development, and manufacturing services.
Steve Kendall serves as the Vice President of CRDMO Business Development at LAXAI. He brings over 16 years of experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, with a strong track record in business development, customer success, and alliance management. Prior to joining LAXAI, Steve held senior leadership positions at Pi Health Sciences, Agno Pharma, Ardena, and Evotec. His expertise spans CRO/CDMO operations, global partnerships, licensing, and go-to-market strategy, with a focus on building and scaling organizations and managing executive-level client relationships. Steve holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, an MBA in Finance, an M.Sc. in Neuroscience, and an Honors B.Sc. in Neuroscience.
Ramesh Mullangi brings about 25+ Years of experience in Drug Metabolism, Pharmacokinetics and Toxicology. He was previously associated with Jubilant Biosys Limited and Dr. Reddy’s Research Foundation in India.
He has a key expertise in leading integrated drug discovery programs across diverse therapeutic areas and filed INDs for over 10 NCEs. He authored over 250+ publications, posters, reviews and patents. He serves as the Editorial Advisory Board member for Bioanalysis and Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis journals and Reviewer Panel member for Current Pharmaceutical Analysis journal.
Dr. D.A. Jeyaraj serves as the President of LAXAI Discovery Services (LDS). He brings over 22 years of experience in medicinal chemistry, drug discovery, and leading multidisciplinary research teams. Prior to joining LAXAI, Dr. Jeyaraj held key positions at Eurofins Advinus, Jubilant Biosys, GVK Biosciences, Semaia Pharmaceuticals (Germany), the Experimental Therapeutic Centre (Singapore), and the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (Singapore). His international research background across India, Singapore, and Germany, combined with deep expertise in drug discovery operations, strengthens LAXAI’s capabilities in delivering integrated discovery solutions to global pharmaceutical and biotech partners.
Dr. TVSK Vittal serves as the Chief Scientific and Operations Officer, LMS (CSOO) at LAXAI. He brings over 34 years of extensive experience spanning pharmaceutical research, drug development, and CDMO operations. Prior to joining LAXAI, Dr. Vittal held senior leadership positions at several prominent pharmaceutical organizations, including Sai Life Sciences, Alembic Pharmaceuticals, Solara Active Pharma, Aurobindo Pharma, Granules India, and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories. In his current role, he leads the scientific direction and operational excellence at LMS, driving LAXAI’s growth in delivering high-quality development and manufacturing solutions to global pharmaceutical and biotech partners.
An experienced professional Chief Executive, who has delivered growth and earnings for a number of companies in the UK, Italy, and Spain over the last 35 years. The ability to work in diverse cultures, take tough decisions, and turn the companies into solid growth companies has been his expertise over the years. Mark has jointly headed an UK 250 FTSE PLC as well as worked inside multinationals and been part of Private Equity Owned companies. The last 20 years has seen him manage and grow a company in development/manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients/fine chemicals in the Biotech and Pharmaceutical/Generic sectors. Since 2008, Mark had concentrated on the biotech sector where start up chemical development has been key to growth. A spin off from this strategy has been the contract development of pheromones for a US start-up company that has culminated in the launching of a number of pheromones for the rice, wheat, and soft fruit sectors. A genetics graduate, Mark currently holds the position of CEO at a UK based Agtech start up, SugaROx and a number of non-executive director roles in the life science space.
John is a pharmaceutical process R&D professional with 40 years of experience in global leadership roles including a variety of executive positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Honeywell, Schering-Plough, Wyeth, Pfizer and, most recently, as CEO of Porton USA, a US subsidiary of Porton Pharma Solutions, a China-based CDMO (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization). John served as the Vice President of New Products Process Development at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals where he was responsible for building a global group to develop and commercialize new products from the Wyeth Pipeline based on the principles of Quality by Design (QbD). After the acquisition of Wyeth by Pfizer, he served as the Vice President of API Technology leading a diverse group of process chemists, analysts and engineers responsible for second gen process development including use of chemical, engineering and biocatalytic technology for API production. John earned a B.S. (magna cum laude) from Syracuse University, and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from SUNY Binghamton.
Dr. Susan Billings is an accomplished, results-driven leader with over 15 years of experience in commercial strategy, business transformation, client-relationship growth, and business development within the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors. She currently serves as the Chief Commercial Officer at Resilience, where she leads the company’s commercial organization, driving strategic go-to-market initiatives to accelerate growth and market presence, while prioritizing the development of strong client relationships.
Before joining Resilience, Dr. Billings was the founding Chief Commercial Officer of Vivodyne, a TechBio platform technology start-up, where she established and led the commercial and corporate strategy for launching their innovative platform. Prior to her role at Vivodyne, she served as Vice President & Global Head of Business Development at Curia, a multi-national CDMO. During her time at Curia, she managed global business development teams focused on drug discovery, development, and manufacturing for biologics, small molecules, fine chemicals, and laboratory testing services.
Nikhil Puri has over 20 years of experience serving the pharmaceutical industry. Nikhil has held senior positions within the pharma industry and as a healthcare investment banker. Most recently prior to joining Signet as a Managing Director in Signet Fund IV, Nikhil was responsible for worldwide business development of the Global Established Pharmaceuticals (“GEP”) business at Pfizer that encompasses a broad portfolio (annual revenues of c. $25 bn) of legacy brands, sterile injectables, generics and bio-similars. During his five-year tenure at Pfizer, a number of key inorganic growth initiatives were consummated for GEP including the acquisitions of Hospira, Innopharma and Nextwave Pharmaceuticals within the United States as well as several international transactions, including in Latin America, Japan and China. Nikhil was a member of both Pfizer’s Business Development leadership team and the GEP leadership team and Investment Committee.
Prior to joining Pfizer, Nikhil spent 15 years as an investment banker in the United States and in Asia at firms including Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, predominantly focused on the pharmaceutical sector. During that time period he was involved in the consummation of over 50 capital raising and strategic advisory transactions with an aggregate value exceeding $20 bn for clients including Endo Pharmaceuticals, Valeant Pharmaceuticals and MedPointe. Nikhil received his Masters of Business Administration from New York University. He has a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of Mumbai and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.
Vamsi Maddipatla is the Chairman and Managing Director of LAXAI. He is a visionary and an entrepreneur with 17 years of experience in technology and bio-pharma industries. He is also the Founder and ex-CEO of LAXAI Pharma Ltd. – a clinical data services company based in NJ, USA and was associated with Pfizer, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson and Deloitte.
Vamsi provides a unique blend of operational and financial experience along with a strong and expansive network of key influencers, industry experts and financial partners. He delivers a visionary understanding of Customer challenges and opportunities, and the instinctive ability to facilitate collaboration between the right people to turn strategic concepts into actionable plans and ultimately into business results.
