Meet the team

“When our customers succeed, we succeed. That’s what drives OmniActive”

Sanjay Mariwala

Founder and Executive Chairman

With extensive experience in the nutraceutical, pharmaceutical and consumer goods industries, our management leads and empowers our teams to bring innovative solutions to market. By focusing on strategic growth and a customer-centric approach, they are helping to shape the future of our industry.

Executive Team

Adam
Chief Commercial Officer

Adam Adelmann

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Adam has nearly two decades of B2B / industry experience. He has worked in leadership positions at companies such as Lonza, Capsugel, Air products and Pfizer. Adam has extensive expertise in business development, strategic growth planning and driving innovation while building and leading high-performing teams.

Adam is a science graduate from West Chester University of Pennsylvania and has studied at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Chief Finance Officer

Kapil Ahuja

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Kapil has 20 years of experience, mainly in consumer goods and pharmaceutical business. He has strong expertise in strategy development, analysis and planning, business performance management, corporate finance, cost optimization, M&A, joint ventures management, board governance, shared services and IT transformation. He is joining us from Sentiss Pharma, where he was Global CFO. Prior to that he worked with Cipla and Mondelēz International in various Indian and international roles.

Kapil has an MBA in Finance and Strategy from Manchester Business School in the UK and a Bachelor of Technology from the National Institute of Technology in Calicut, India.

Chief Innovation Officer

Arun Balakrishnan, Ph.D.

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With a rich academic, research and business background, Arun heads OmniActive’s R&D efforts. He is primarily responsible for establishing processes for quick turnaround of projects driven by customer needs, developing delivery platforms and improving existing products.

Arun has held positions as a professor/researcher at the Centre for Biotechnology, Anna University, Chennai, and as Senior VP for Screening and External Liaison of the natural products division at Piramal Lifesciences. Arun holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and a Master’s and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Madras.

Chief Operations Officer and Country Head – India

Chaitanya Desai

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As a seasoned pharmaceutical industry executive with a strong history in managing operations from raw material sourcing to end-product manufacturing, Chaitanya aligns, guides, and leads the operations, business and sales functions of OmniActive’s Specialty Botanicals and Extracts division. Over his almost 40 years of experience, Chaitanya has provided visionary leadership to illustrious corporations such as Cadila Pharmaceuticals, Unimark Remedies, Shasun Drug and Chemical, and Sanmar Specialty Chemicals.

Chaitanya holds a Bachelor of Science diplomas from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai.

Chief Human Resource Officer

Akshay Kejriwal

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With over 15 years of experience, Akshay has helped lead human resources for global commercial operations in various geographical locations for companies such as Cipla, Infosys, and TNT India. Akshay holds special expertise in talent requisition and recruitment, designing performance, bonuses, ESOP plans, and creating HR processes, systems, and infrastructure.

Akshay holds a PGDM, HRD from the Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resources as well as licenses and certifications from IDEO (Insights for Innovation) and Korn Ferry (Job Evaluation Methodology).

Board Of Directors

Managing Director and Executive Chairman

Sanjaya Mariwala

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Sanjaya Mariwala is a seasoned entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience in the natural food and supplement ingredients space. He is a founding member of OmniActive and provides strategic and financial oversight and guidance to the company’s global teams. He had served as Managing Director of Kancor Ingredients from 1990 to 2014. Sanjaya’s numerous professional and industrial affiliations include the India Pepper & Spice Trade Association, All India Spices Exporters Forum, Confederation of Indian Industry, Indian Merchant’s Chamber, TIE-The Indus Entrepreneurs and FICCI.

Sanjay holds a degree in tax management from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies and has completed executive training programs at the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) and Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Vishal Gupta

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Vishal Gupta is currently the Director at TA Associates. Vishal focuses on investments in technology, healthcare, consumer, business, and financial services companies in India. Prior to TA, Vishal worked at Softbank Vision Fund as an investment director. Vishal earned his Bachelor of Technology in Industrial Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and his post-graduate program from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Dhiraj Poddar

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Dhiraj heads the Indian operations of TA Associates Advisory Pvt. Ltd., focusing on investments in companies in India and other emerging markets. He has advised on over 11 investments across financial services, technology, healthcare and business services. He joined TA in 2010 and has more than 15 years of experience in the private equity industry. He received a degree from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and an MBA Degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Milind Sarwate

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Milind Sarwate is an advisor, mentor, independent director and ESG contributor. He is the Founder and CEO of Increate, a firm that works towards business and social value creation, with a focus on capability-building, and the governance and social aspects of ESG.

Milind’s independent directorships include Asian Paints, Mahindra Finance, FSN E-Commerce (Nykaa), Matrimony.com, and Hexaware. He specializes in audit committee roles. He has been on listed company boards since 2005. His previous board memberships include Mindtree and International Paper. His 40-year experience includes long stints as CFO and CHRO in Marico & Godrej.

He is a Chartered Accountant (1983), Cost Accountant (1983), Company Secretary (1984), and a CII-Fulbright Fellow (Carnegie Mellon University, USA, 1996). He has been awarded the ICAI CFO Award (2011), CNBC TV-18 CFO Award (2012) and CFO India Hall of Fame induction (2013).

Leendart Staal, Ph. D

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Leendart has held numerous senior level positions within the DSM group: as President and Chief Executive Officer of DSM Nutritional Products from January 2008 to March 2013 and previously as President and Chief Executive Officer of DSM Pharmaceuticals. He has also served as Group Vice President of Quest International and was Chairman of Unipath (a wholly owned subsidiary of Unilever).

Rupa Vora

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Rupa Vora is an independent director on corporate boards with more than three decades of experience in finance. She was the Group Director & CFO of IDFC Alternatives for more than a decade, and earlier CFO of the Indian operations of Antwerp Diamond Bank N.V. and KBC Bank N.V. Rupa was also associated with Calyon Bank and Oman International Bank S.A.O.G., and before joining the corporate world, ran an independent practice as a chartered accountant for almost a decade. 

Rupa has been conferred with the “Women Leadership Excellence Award” at the IPE – BFSI Awards 2013 by the Institute of Public Enterprise and was featured among India’s 10 most influential women in finance by Rediff.com in 2012. She is a fellow member of the Institute of Directors and a lifetime member of the Independent Director’s Data Bank of the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs. Rupa is also a member of CII’s National Committee on Financial Reporting from 2020-2021 to 2022-2023. 

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