Our leadership team

Lokesh Bhagchand is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Excelra. In this role, he drives operational excellence, client success, and innovation at scale- positioning Excelra for its next phase of growth.

As COO, Lokesh oversees initiatives across client delivery excellence, innovation and technology enablement, capability and resource management, and organizational growth. He works closely with the CEO and CCO to translate strategy into measurable business outcomes and client impact.

With over 27 years of experience in Life Sciences IT and Consulting, Lokesh has led large-scale transformation and growth programs at Cognizant and Agilisium. He is recognized for building high-performing teams, instilling operational discipline, and integrating technology-led innovation to achieve sustainable results.

Lokesh holds a Master’s degree in Software Engineering from BITS Pilani. He believes in the power of people, purpose, and continuous learning. Outside of work, he enjoys storytelling, watching movies, exploring spirituality, spending time with family, and playing chess.

John leads Excelra's Scientific Informatics Business Unit, bringing over 20 years of experience in digital transformation across a diverse set of industries. He combines deep informatics domain knowledge with sharp commercial acumen to help science-led organisations turn complex laboratory workflows into streamlined, data-driven operations.

John has held senior leadership positions across some of the most respected names in scientific informatics, including Astrix, LabTwin, Brooks Life Sciences, Thermo Fisher, Abbott, and STARLIMS. Throughout his career he has partnered with organisations across life sciences, crop science, materials science, CPG, and process industries, translating technology investments into faster decisions, better data, and stronger scientific outcomes.

A technologist grounded in pragmatism, he is passionate about the potential of AI to transform scientific research and operations, but firmly believes that technology should only be applied where it delivers real, measurable value. He understands the competitive pressures that drive organisations to adopt emerging technologies, and helps them do so in a way that delivers lasting impact rather than short-term momentum.

A Computer Science graduate of The University of Manchester, he is known for building high-performing, collaborative teams grounded in trust and shared purpose. Outside the office, he is devoted to his family and enjoys getting his hands dirty with DIY projects at home.

Laasyaa P. Chadaga is the Vice President- Finance & Legal at Excelra and is based out of Bangalore, India. Laasyaa brings with her 15 years of experience in Strategic Financial Leadership and Investment Banking.

Before joining Excelra, Laasyaa served as the Head of Finance & Strategy at Niro. As a founding member of Niro’s leadership team, she played a key role in overseeing financial operations, shaping strategy, ensuring compliance and governance, managing fundraising and investor relations, and fostering strategic partnerships.

Laasyaa holds a PGDM in Finance & Marketing from the SDM Institute for Management Development, as well as a B.Com in Advanced Accountancy and Financial Management.

Outside of work, she enjoys playing poker, spending quality time with her family, and exploring the great outdoors. She’s also passionate about traveling the world.

Jannick Bendtsen leads Excelra’s Global Bioinformatics and Data Science function, bringing over 20 years of experience at the intersection of bioinformatics software, enterprise commercialization, and scientific innovation.

A seasoned entrepreneur and executive, Jannick founded PipeBio and grew it from the ground up into a profitable, multi-million ARR business — a journey that culminated in its acquisition by Benchling in 2024. Following the acquisition, he led PipeBio’s go-to-market efforts within Benchling, driving enterprise GTM, pricing strategy, and biologics and NGS workflows.

Prior to PipeBio, Jannick held key product, go-to-market, and leadership roles at CLC bio, Cartagenia, and Biomatters, building a deep track record of taking complex bioinformatics platforms to market and forging lasting partnerships with leading pharma and biotech organizations.

At Excelra, Jannick combines his technical depth with commercial acumen to help accelerate the company’s growth strategy and deliver valuable bioinformatics solutions to the global life sciences industry.

Chandra leads the scientific team within the bioinformatics business unit in its mission to extract knowledge and value from data. He has first-hand experience applying technological solutions to develop effective drug development pipelines.

After completing his Ph.D. in global optimization at the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, he did postdoctoral fellowship work at New England Biolabs, in the division headed by Nobel laureate Sir Richard Roberts. He moved on to Prof. Meyerson's lab at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

Chandra progressed to join the precision oncology cluster at Sanofi Inc., where he co-led target identification efforts to identify novel drug targets. He then joined Excelra, where he continues to pioneer the interfacing of science and technology in service of drug discovery and development.

Chandra has contributed to more than 80 publications in world-class journals and over a dozen Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) projects. He ranks among the top 6% of scientists worldwide in the AD Scientific Index 2022 and the top 2% in citations. He has also been inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB).

Outside of his professional and academic pursuits, Chandra enjoys reading and spending time with his family.

Pramod C is the Vice President & Head of Human Resources at Excelra, based out of Bangalore, India. He brings over 24 years of experience in building high-performing organizations across the IT, Analytics, and Services sectors, with expertise in HR strategy, organization transformation, and leadership development.

Before joining Excelra, Pramod served as Vice President – HR at Mindsprint, leading several transformational initiatives including organization restructuring, redefining the hybrid work model, and setting up new centers in Chennai and Bangalore. He has also held senior HR leadership roles at Emids Technologies, Optum (UnitedHealth Group), and Wipro Technologies.

Pramod holds a Master’s degree in Human Resources from Symbiosis, is an alumnus of Indian School of Business(ISB) and a certified Hogan assessor. He is passionate about building inclusive, purpose-driven workplaces and leveraging people analytics and AI to drive business impact.

Outside of work, he enjoys traveling, reading, and spending quality time with his family.

Sujatha brings over 17 years of experience to support Excelra Inc.’s people and partners. She is highly qualified, holding chartered accountant, company secretary, and cost and management accountant degrees. She also completed her postgraduate certificate in machine learning and big data analysis at the Indian Institute of Information Technology.

For companies including CMA CGM, Macmillan, IGATE, and Tech Mahindra, Sujatha has excelled in finance, business analytics, and technology roles. She has experience in acquisitions, corporate finance, corporate governance, CRM and ERP implementation, business analytics, and product and platform development.

Sujatha now applies her expertise at Excelra Inc. and Anlitiks, an Excelra company, leading our finance and technology. In her spare time, she likes to cook, read, and travel whenever possible.

Norman leads Excelra's scientific products team and is responsible for our flagship platforms – GOSTAR® and GOBIOM. He combines scientific passion with a methodical, user-centric product development approach to help our customers progress with confidence.

After his undergraduate degree in neuroscience at Wesleyan University, Norman joined Dr. Rosen's lab at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and concurrently completed a Master's in Biology from Harvard University. He then moved to the publishing industry with Elsevier, where he played a significant role in the success of the Scopus database and various product launches. Later, Norman leveraged his expertise to advance HR systems at ADP.

Norman's enthusiasm for product development is evident at Excelra. He ensures our products constantly evolve and update to deliver accurate and actionable data. Biologists, chemists, and data scientists rely on our products in their ongoing quest for discovery.

Norman is committed to making their search as streamlined and successful as possible.
Raised in Europe, Norman now lives with his wife and children in Boston. He's a keen landscape photographer and an accomplished rower.

Jitendra Parekh Vice President, Technology Solutions, leads the technology solutions team at Excelra. In this role, he spearheads the co-design and co-creation of customized digital products and innovative solutions that drives the technology for life science companies. He is based out of Mumbai, India

With over 22 years of experience in the Healthcare IT industry, Jitendra brings expertise in Project Management, Service Delivery Management, and Client Delivery. He has successfully managed delivery for customer engagements in the Pharma R&D and Biotech domains, utilizing a range of technologies.

Prior to joining Excelra, Jitendra spent 13 years at CitiusTech, where he played a pivotal role in managing service delivery and relationships for diverse healthcare organizations across the life sciences and providers domain. His contributions spanned across the design and development of healthcare applications, digital engineering projects, and program management for healthcare providers and MedTech & Life Science organizations.

Throughout his career, Jitendra has remained dedicated to innovation, transformation, and progression, principles he continues to uphold at Excelra. When not driving digital transformation, Jitendra enjoys cycling, watching movies, and spending quality time with his family.

Raveendra has been with Excelra for 15 years. During that time, he's seen the business grow to support thousands of researchers in their efforts to discover new drugs and improved treatments. His team provides data curation and insight services for world-leading pharmas and biotechs.

Raveendra received his M.Sc. in organic chemistry from Osmania University, followed by a Ph.D. in computational chemistry and molecular modeling at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology. He completed his postdoctoral research in the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Southern California.

After many years in the lab, Raveendra joined GVK Biosciences in 2007, contributing to the development of GOSTAR®. At Excelra, he's committed to delivering top-quality, effectively structured content to support the next generation of drug discoveries.

Raveendra is also committed to helping improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged communities. He fundraises for a network of local schools and is a learning mentor for many of its students.

Vikash leads strategy and corporate development at Excelra. Vikash is a versatile life science professional with over a decade of experience across strategy, finance, investment management, and corporate development. He has a solid foundation in life sciences and data science, having obtained his graduate degree from IIT Madras, India, and his master's from the University of Osnabrueck. He strengthened his organizational leadership skills by obtaining an MBA from IIM Bengaluru, India.

Vikash's deep insight into innovation cycles and industry dynamics at the intersection of life sciences and technology has made him an expert in incubating innovative solutions, from ideation to implementation. In his current role, Vikash leads the charge to drive long-term growth for Excelra. On the inorganic side, he steers investments and M&A, from defining investment and acquisition strategies, deal sourcing, and diligence, to deal execution. On the organic side, he partners with business leaders and customers to incubate innovative solutions, define the core customer and value proposition, establish market fit, and develop investment and business plans.

Outside of his professional interests, Vikash enjoys a variety of pursuits, including cricket, blues music, science fiction, and art-house cinema. He loves to travel, learn new languages, and experience new cultures.

Bindu Ajithkumar is the Director of Marketing at Excelra and is based out of Bangalore, India. She leads the Marketing function to drive the company’s growth into new segments. Bindu has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Gifu University, Japan, and an Executive MBA from the Institute of Management Bangalore, India

She brings over 20 years of experience in the area of the Life Sciences industry. Before joining Excelra, Bindu was the Commercial Marketing Head for Chemistry, APAC at MERCK. She was Dy Gen Manager of Lab Operations at Sigma Aldrich prior to taking up the commercial marketing role. In her previous roles, she was successful in building a winning team and driving revenue-generating projects thus enabling the region to grow at a commendable pace consistently.

Bindu is passionate about innovation and sustainability.

In her leisure, Bindu spends time photography and making herbal potions. She enjoys traveling and seeing new places.