Abhijit Zutshi joins as CCO and Maninder Kapoor Puri as CHRO
Syngene International, a global contract research, development, and manufacturing organisation (CRDMO), today announced Abhijit Zutshi as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) and Maninder Kapoor Puri as Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), effective 1 May 2026.
Abhijit (Abhi) Zutshi joins Syngene as Chief Commercial Officer and will be based in the United States. As a member of the Executive Committee, Abhi will lead Syngene’s commercial activities, including sales, client partnerships, marketing, brand building, digital initiatives, and account management. He is tasked with further expanding the CRDMO’s pipeline of partners from innovative US-based biotechs and large pharma, as well as significantly deepening existing partnerships as more global customers undertake late-stage development and commercial supply with Syngene. The CRDMO continues to see growth in its US customer base and last year acquired its first manufacturing facility in Baltimore.
Abhi is a seasoned pharmaceutical executive with nearly 27 years of commercial experience across global markets. He spent 25 years at Biocon, most recently as Chief Commercial Officer of the generics business, where he led both the drug substance and drug product divisions and built a global team focused on generic formulations. His career expertise spans sales, marketing, business development, portfolio management, and market entry strategy across small and large molecules. Earlier in his career, he held a product specialist role at Pfizer, where he led the India launch of the Zosyn brand. Abhi holds a degree in pharmacy, an MBA, and is a graduate of the Leadership Development Program at Harvard Business School.
Commenting on the appointments, Peter Bains, Managing Director and CEO, Syngene International, said, “We are pleased to welcome Maninder and Abhijit to Syngene’s leadership team. Their depth of experience and strong track record in their respective domains will be instrumental as we continue to evolve our service offerings and enhance our value proposition for clients worldwide. These appointments reinforce our commitment to building a world-class leadership team capable of driving our next phase of sustainable growth.”
Maninder Kapoor Puri is a global HR leader with nearly three decades of experience driving business performance through people, leadership, culture, and digital HR ecosystems.
Her experience spans biopharmaceuticals, IT services, and consulting across North America, EMEA, and APAC. She has partnered with CEOs and Boards to lead large-scale, multi-market transformations, building high-performance organizations aligned to business growth.
Most recently, as CHRO at Biocon, she led enterprise-wide culture and leadership transformation. Prior to that, as Global CHRO at Mastek, she led HR across 40+ countries and has held leadership roles at Accenture and Firstsource Solutions. Maninder has been featured by Outlook Business as a face of “Viksit Bharat” and recognized among HR Today’s Top 100 Global CHROs, India’s Most Agile Leaders (2026), and as a CHRO of the Year.
As Chief Human Resources Officer and a member of the Executive Committee at Syngene, Maninder will be leading the company’s global people agenda to support its next phase of growth.
