AGRIGENOME - Key Persons
Dr. George Thomas (GT) holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He did his postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA prior to returning to India as the head of the Molecular Biology Division at SPIC Science Foundation in Chennai.
GT is a recipient of the National Science Talent Scholarship (NCERT) and Fogarty International Fellowships. Among his many notable achievements is a paper in Nature during his PhD from IISc where he published the organization and bidirectional transcription nature of H2A, H2B and H4 histone genes in rice embryos. Dr. George has also made extensive contribution in the plant biotechnology area including development of insect resistant rice and tobacco, engineering salt tolerance in crops and other technologies for genetic engineering of crop plants. Further GT was instrumental in several successful grant applications during his academic tenure.
He is a member on several educational, technology and advisory boards.
Dr. Vijay Reddy holds a Doctorate Degree in Rice Functional Genomics from University of Hyderabad. His expertise includes genomics, molecular biology, molecular genetics, bioinformatics and applied aspects of agricultural research for crop improvement. He has more than 6000 submissions at NCBI-EST division and >1600 dbSNP submissions.
Dr.Vijay has worked at various levels with Vibha Seed Group like DGM, General Manager and Sr. General Manager. His contribution includes establishment of various divisions in biotechnology like Molecular Diagnostics, Marker Assisted Selections, Candidate Gene Identification, Gene Cloning, Construct development, Genetic Transformation etc. More than 150 Markers have been established by him, which are being extensively utilized in various breeding programs and more than 30 commercial hybrids were developed using these technologies.
He was instrumental in attracting several funding bodies like DBT, USAID in collaboration with CIMMYT, ACPFG, ICRISAT in his earlier organisation. He has more than 7 years of experience in biotechnology before joining AgriGenome.
Kartik has worked with multiple high tech start-ups in his career as an investor and early stage co-founder including Webex (acquired by Cisco) where he was an early founding employee.
Mahesh Pratapneni specializes in incubating product companies in the education, healthcare, and data/analytics sectors. He is focused on helping launch, re-engineer and support small and mid-sized technology driven businesses.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Member of the Management Team
Mr. Sam Santhosh is an entrepreneur, with over 28 years experience in the software industry. Currently he is at the helm of affairs as CEO and promoter of SciGenom Labs Pvt Ltd. Sam sits on the board of a number of companies, both in US and India. In this role he advises, guides and mentors companies to help them grow and realize their true potential.
Prior to this Sam was the CEO and Managing Director of California Software Limited (Calsoft) from 1992 - Feb 2012. He founded Calsoft in 1992 and under Sam's vision Calsoft rapidly grew from a niche player in the Silicon Valley to a global player with over 1200 employees and presence in 8 countries. Sam took Calsoft Public and the company is listed the in Indian Stock Exchanges. Sam oversaw the growth of Calsoft in all key areas - Finance, Strategy, Customer acquisition and inorganic growth through eight acquisitions including companies in U.S, UK, Japan and India.
He has been constantly retooling himself and has attended various training programs in different U.S universities including MIT. In 2010, he completed the Executive Education program at the Singularity University in Sunnyvale, California. Sam has an engineering degree and an MBA (majoring in Management Information Systems) from India's premier institute, IIM Calcutta.