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Avi Kulkarni leads Cognizant’s global life sciences. He is responsible for commercial development, planning, and P&L execution for Cognizant’s biopharma and medical device clients across research and development, commercial, and digital functions. Kulkarni has been at the forefront of the drugs and diagnostics industry for over three decades, building new drug formulations, launching new diagnostic tests, publishing extensively in personalized medicine, and building capabilities in cellular therapies. Prior to joining Cognizant in June 2021, he served as managing director and head of Accenture’s global clinical business, where he drove double-digit annual growth. Before Accenture, Kulkarni was SVP and leader of IQVIA, a clinical research organization. Previously, he was global head of life sciences R&D at Booz & Co., a management consulting company. He also held CXO roles at three biotechnology start-ups spun out from Stanford University and funded by Sand Hill Road venture capital. Kulkarni is a pharmacist who holds a Ph.D. degree in pharmaceutics from Temple University, Pennsylvania, and a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University. He has been a San Francisco bay area resident for nearly three decades, where he currently lives with his wife and daughter.

Drug and diagnostics product development, Mergers and acquisitions, Commercialization processes

Life Sciences: Driven by a vision to improve patient outcomes along with pressure to speed time to market, manage costs and navigate regulatory demands, life sciences companies have an urgent need to innovate. Integrating digital transformation into your business strategy drives results and creates a more intelligent, agile and high-performing enterprise. Medical Devices: Implement digital strategies and operations to improve product development, speed to market and patient centricity for increased profitability. Pharmaceuticals and Biotech: Take advantage of intelligent digital platforms, cloud, data, automation and AI to develop safer, more effective and affordable drugs and improve patient outcomes. Healthcare: In healthcare, meeting next-generation consumer expectations means delivering whole-person care and creating unified experiences, across physical, digital and stakeholder silos. To achieve success, Cognizant helps organizations modernize foundational IT infrastructure and move to an ecosystem-based operating model that prioritizes collaboration, agility and resilience while delivering the care experiences that consumers demand - anytime, anywhere.