Meeta Gulyani

Meeta Gulyani is Head of Strategy, Business Development and Sustainability for the Life Science business of Merck. In this role, she leads the development of the business’s organic and inorganic strategy, as well as the strategic planning process to ensure the business remains poised for the next growth horizon. This includes driving the end-to-end inorganic growth agenda for the Life Science business, in close partnership with business, corporate and transformation-focused functions. She chairs the Life Science M Ventures board, the strategic, corporate venture capital arm of Merck, to bring in external innovation for fast-growth, next-generation areas. Additionally, she is responsible for seamlessly embedding sustainability within the organization’s strategy, business and social goals, encompassing sustainable operations, greener products and solutions, as well as employee and community engagement. As part of her responsibilities, Gulyani heads the Shared Business Services organization for the Life Science business, which is integral to delivering on the business’s objectives. Driving the realization of these ambitions, she steers portfolio choices and guides resource allocation to deliver sustainable, profitable growth.

Since beginning this position in 2016, Gulyani has overseen numerous initiatives to transform the positioning of the Life Science business in the marketplace. This included integration efforts for the € 14.5 billion acquisition of chemical giant Sigma-Aldrich – marking the largest acquisition in the company’s history and one of the largest in the life science industry. Gulyani was previously Executive Vice President and Head of Strategy and Global Franchises for the Healthcare business of Merck, where she was responsible for global business franchises and key functions, including Oncology, Neurology, Fertility, General Medicine & Endocrinology and Medical Devices.

Prior to joining the company, Gulyani served as Vice President and Head of Global Portfolio Management and then as General Manager for South Asia at Roche Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Roche, she held several marketing and sales leadership positions of increasing responsibility within Sanofi-Aventis’s global and U.S. organizations. Gulyani also served as a strategy consultant in Hong Kong and in the United States with the Monitor Consulting Group.

Gulyani holds a Master of Business Administration from the Asian Institute of Management, Philippines, accompanied by an exchange program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Shri Ram College of Commerce at Delhi University in India.