Stelis Biopharma, a vertically integrated biopharma and vaccines company and the biotech arm of Strides Pharma Science, announced the appointment of Mark W Womack (Mark) as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). 

Mark is the MD designate and shall be inducted to the Board later subject to necessary statutory clearances and processes. As the company's CEO and MD, Mark will provide strong leadership to drive an aggressive growth and profitability strategy for Stelis in its business streams that include global Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) services and the development of the company's biosimilars pipeline, and integrated vaccines play. He will be responsible for the Company's overall strategy and provide the necessary direction and dynamic leadership to R&D, manufacturing, business development, and commercial operations.

Commenting on the development, Arun Kumar, Founder, Strides Group, said, "We are delighted to onboard Mark as the new CEO of Stelis. Stelis stands on the cusp of a transition to become a globally recognised biopharmaceutical company while targeting significant growth in the coming years. Mark's strong background in commercial leadership, rich management consulting experience, and network within the biotech CDMO space make him exceptionally well suited to drive this transition for Stelis. We are confident that together Mark and his leadership team will take Stelis through the next level of growth, profitability and industry-leading reputation."

Mark is an organisation builder with a track record of delivering unprecedented performance and growth in his previous roles. Before joining Stelis, Mark was the Chief Business Officer (CBO) for AGC Biologics (AGC), one of the world's leading global biopharmaceutical CDMOs. In his role at AGC, Mark led the organisation to nearly a 3x increase in new sales in just two years and drove the acquisition of most of the world's top large pharma companies into their portfolio. Before that, leveraging his management consulting background, Mark led the global integration of three former CDMOs that were merged to create AGC Biologics.

Mark has served over 25 years as a management consulting industry leader and C-level client advisor, leading large-scale business transformations and guiding many of the world's renowned companies to achieve record highs in revenue and profit. During this time, he served as the Chief Operating Officer for two international management consulting companies.

Before joining the management consulting industry, Mark led a succession of US Navy units to unprecedented results, including serving as a combat centre leader on a destroyer class ship. Mark is a US citizen, and he will be based at the company's corporate headquarter in Bengaluru.