Senior Leadership

Pradeep Palazhi is an experienced entrepreneur with 30-plus years in various sectors, including healthcare, genomics, precision medicine, synthetic biology, SaaS, and fintech. He has founded or played key roles in several successful companies, such as Loyale Healthcare, ePAY Healthcare, Saath.Care, HealthVidvan, CASHNet, American HealthNet, and Calsoft. Pradeep specializes in building large platforms and SaaS products, as well as managing extensive solutions organizations. He is particularly passionate about developing practical solutions to address significant healthcare challenges that impact patient care and quality of life. His vast business experience and connections span across the US, UK, and India.

Currently, Pradeep serves as the Co-Founder and CEO of ThinkBio.Ai®, Inc., where he focuses on digital biology and precision medicine platforms and solutions. Under his leadership, ThinkBio.Ai® utilizes AI to drive innovations in the biotech, pharmaceutical, and healthcare sectors..

John Rekesh is a seasoned technology expert with over 30 years of industry experience, specializing in Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence. With a strong focus on Healthcare and Life Sciences, John has made significant contributions across multiple verticals. He's a thought leader in AI, frequently hosting panel events on Generative AI and authoring insightful pieces on the nature of and surprises within AI models. John has worked with major US, European, and Japanese customers, where he has shaped technology visions and roadmaps for companies worldwide.

John holds multiple patents and has been instrumental in creating over 100 products incorporating diverse technologies. His expertise spans enterprise applications, cybersecurity, and infrastructure, with a strong emphasis on R&D and product engineering. Currently, John's interests lie in AI foundation models in healthcare and life sciences, Responsible AI, and quantum computing. As an AWS Certified Solution Architect and Cloud Practitioner, John combines forward-thinking approaches with practical know-how, enabling organizations to navigate the complex landscape of AI and enterprise solutions.

Kevin is a seasoned executive leader with extensive experience across Healthcare, Technology, FinTech, and Financial Services industries. His impressive career includes roles as CEO, President, CFO, and Managing Director/Partner, as well as Board of Directors positions. Kevin has a strong track record of building substantial enterprise value through various strategies, including growth capital funding, M&A, organic growth, cash flow enhancements, business model transformation, and turnarounds. His notable achievements include successfully leading Loyale Healthcare as CEO & CFO, where he built thriving SaaS Enterprise Technology and FinTech Payments businesses, securing major healthcare networks as customers and ultimately achieving a successful exit. As CEO & CFO of Paradigm Outcomes, he improved clinical outcomes and customer savings to industry-leading standards, doubling revenue and EBITDA, which led to a $300+ million private equity acquisition.

Throughout his career, Kevin has demonstrated expertise in value acceleration and realization, governance roles, capital readiness and funding, and sell-side M&A. As a Senior Partner at Ernst & Young, he provided consulting and audit services to many of the firm’s largest clients, managing complex projects including large-scale M&A. His industry experience spans Healthcare, Financial Services, Technology, Professional Services, and Life Sciences/Pharma. Kevin’s comprehensive skill set includes strategic advisory consulting, business strategy development, risk management, and executive mentoring. His proven ability to drive growth, optimize operations, and create monetizable value positions him at the forefront of today’s dynamic business landscape.

Michael Evans is a seasoned business leader with over three decades of experience in finance and consulting. He spent 34 years as a Senior Partner at Ernst & Young (EY), where he served as Global Industry Leader for the Real Estate, Hospitality and Construction practice. At EY, Michael held senior management roles in the US and Latin America, helping clients improve financial reporting systems, enhance performance, and streamline operations across various service lines.

Currently, Michael is the Managing Director, Chief Financial Officer, and board member for Newport LLC, a partnership focused on middle market companies’ growth and performance. He also serves on several company boards, including one specializing in Artificial Intelligence. A CPA and attorney, Michael shares his expertise as a lecturer on business planning and succession, and as an author for Forbes.com on private company growth. His diverse background and ongoing engagement with emerging technologies provides him with a unique perspective on business strategy and growth.

Amit Chaudhuri, PhD, possesses over two decades of experience in drug discovery and technology advancement, specializing in high throughput proteomics and genomics technologies for the development of better therapies. He is passionate about building integrative data analysis platforms that combine deep domain knowledge with computational biology and AI tools. Over a decade of experience in early drug discovery at mid-size biotech company CuraGen Corporation and at Genentech/Roche provided him with the scientific leadership skills to guide translational research teams at MedGenome, Alstonia Bio, and currently at ThinkBio.Ai®.

As VP and Head of Research at MedGenome, Dr. Chaudhuri led the Immuno-oncology team in developing an integrated platform to discover and develop cancer vaccines, resulting in a US patent in 2019. At Alstonia Bio, he established a high throughput antibody production, purification, and characterization platform to support hit-to-lead generation of engineered multi-specific antibody therapeutics. Now, as CSO of ThinkBio.Ai®, he is building AI-driven integrative platforms to support preclinical-to-clinical translational research for biotech, pharma, and healthcare sectors.

As the CTO and founder of Feathersoft Info Solutions Private Limited, Sudhish Chandran is the driving force behind the company’s technology vision and strategy. He spearheads future technology development, focusing on the incubation of emerging technologies, fostering an innovation ecosystem, and creating industry alliances. With over a decade’s experience in delivering software solutions and cloud architecture to niche industries such as Agritech, Fintech, and Biotech, Sudhish is a seasoned executive. His expertise spans Big Data, Hadoop, AI / ML, Application Management, Enterprise Monitoring, IT Infrastructure, and Cloud Computing. Sudhish excels in implementing risk-free, server-less cloud migrations using agile methodologies.

Sudhish is experienced in building high-performance, large-scale real-time systems, microservices, and web applications. He has a stellar track record of assembling highly skilled development teams and delivering innovative solutions tailored to business needs. He is adept at crafting product and technology strategies, leveraging a strong background in consumer internet/mobile and Cloud/SaaS/Enterprise technologies, and establishing world-class technology teams from the ground up. Sudhish leads all aspects of the product lifecycle, from development and quality assurance to presales and customer support, and excels in managing geographically distributed teams.

Shirley Straka is a highly experienced sales and service professional with over 30 years of expertise in healthcare information technology. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated a strong commitment to customer satisfaction and business growth. She has held key roles in direct sales, sales & account management, project & product management, customer service & education and consulting, while providing IT solutions to large, complex multi-specialty physician group practice organizations, hospitals, and integrated healthcare delivery networks.

Shirley last served as the Executive Vice President of Sales at Loyale, and was responsible for driving enterprise sales, achieving over $12 million in revenue by delivering cutting-edge patient financial engagement technology to large health systems. Before joining Loyale, she was the Chief Sales Officer at Rycan – CPSI, where she led sales efforts for revenue cycle service offerings in a cloud-based environment, achieving an impressive 245% of the sales quota in the first quarter of 2016.

At ZirMed, Shirley excelled as the Regional VP, Business Development, where she was responsible for generating significant revenue through strategic partnerships and expanding the company’s market presence across 18 states in the Midwest. She has a proven track record of rapidly growing pipelines and increasing market awareness through her extensive network of executive relationships.

Shirley’s earlier experience includes senior sales roles at Athenahealth, McKesson, and RelayHealth, where she consistently exceeded sales quotas, managed large accounts, and developed successful sales strategies. Shirley’s extensive experience, strategic insight, and proven ability to drive sales growth make her an asset to any organization looking to expand its reach in the healthcare technology sector.

Suniti Ponkshe is a Managing Director and a Partner at Newport LLC, a boutique business advisory firm that helps CEOs and business owners with their growth, de-risk and value acceleration strategy.

Suniti has been in healthcare and technology space over 35 years working as a consultant as well as an executive. Her successes have been in professional services, technology companies, healthcare, and start-ups. She excels in strategic planning and execution, program/project implementations, business transformation, product development, and operations. She is an advisor, a Board member and an operating executive with a long successful career in the private and public sector working with diverse organizations: healthcare payers, providers, federal agencies, product companies, ranging from startups to large enterprises. She has helped many organizations on increasing their company value, developing strategic plans and exit successfully. Prior to joining Newport, she held executive positions at several organizations including Elevance, Optum, Accenture, IBM and others.

She holds a B.Sc. In Statistics and Economics, and Bachelor of General Laws from Bombay University and M.S. in Management Information Systems from Texas tech University. She has served and continues to serve on several company advisory boards as well as non-profit boards. She co-authored a book on Medical Informatics and has been a guest lecturer to several graduate programs. She enjoys working with C-level executives to address complex problems and helping teams achieve successful outcomes.

Dr. Malayattil Vijayalakshmi is a highly qualified medical specialist with extensive credentials, including an M.D. in Pediatrics, an M.D. in Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, and a Fellowship from the American Academy of Pediatrics (FAAP). She also holds a Diploma in Allergy and Asthma and an M.Sc. in Clinical Oncology.

With over 25 years of clinical experience, Dr. Vijayalakshmi is licensed to practice medicine in both California and India. Her diverse career spans hospital and outpatient settings in the United States and India, including managing her own chain of pediatric clinics. Dr. Vijayalakshmi has also made significant contributions to medical research, serving as Ethics Committee and Institutional Review Board (IRB) chair in various research environments. Her comprehensive background demonstrates a commitment to both clinical practice and advancing medical knowledge in pediatrics and related fields.

With over 30 years of experience spanning product management, engineering, business development, and general management, Dilip Daswani has led initiatives across industries including Financial Services, Telecommunications, Energy, and Consumer Products. As CEO of Qliktag Software, Inc., Dilip drives the vision of enabling companies to tokenize and digitally enhance their physical products through a powerful SaaS platform.

Previously, Dilip served as Vice President of Corporate Development at Triple Point Technology, a privately held company focused on providing software solutions for the Energy / Commodity Trading and Risk Management (E/CTRM) sector where he spearheaded business expansion through alliances, resellers, and acquisitions, contributing to the company’s $150 million in sales. Before that, he was President of Energy Crossroads, which was successfully acquired by Triple Point Technology in 2001.

Apurva Kalia brings over 35 years of experience as a technology pioneer, innovator, and strategic leader, with a proven track record of building scalable software platforms, defining technology strategies, and leading dynamic global teams. His expertise spans Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and computational biology, delivering groundbreaking results across industries. Apurva excels in leveraging AI/ML techniques such as generative AI, natural language processing, and feature engineering to drive innovation. He has successfully implemented cutting-edge solutions, including drug-target prediction models and molecular property predictions, achieving state-of-the-art results in his PhD research at Tufts University in Systems and Computational Biology.

As Chief Research Officer at Lumina AI Inc., Apurva created innovative, scalable solutions for at-scale data ingestion and embedding, achieving remarkable efficiency gains while securing substantial seed funding. Previously, at Cadence Design Systems, he led the R&D team for Advanced Verification Solutions, growing it from the ground up to over 200 members globally. Under his leadership, Cadence's flagship product reached $180M in annual revenue, and innovative technologies, such as patented fault simulation solutions, were introduced. His efforts also resulted in a 300% performance improvement in logic simulation over five years, strengthening partnerships with major clients like Apple, Samsung, and Texas Instruments.

Apurva's strength lies not only in his technical acumen, which includes cloud computing, parallel architectures, and complex algorithms, but also in his ability to build and scale high-performance teams. Over two decades, he has fostered team environments with attrition rates below 7%, reflecting his commitment to empathetic and hands-on leadership.

Beyond his corporate impact, Apurva is a passionate advocate for STEM education. He founded India STEM Foundation and Techtronics Education, initiatives that have impacted thousands of students and ignited interest in robotics-based learning across India. Apurva’s contributions are further highlighted by numerous publications, including research on molecular modeling and metabolomics, and patents that showcase his pioneering work in advanced verification and AI-driven solutions.

Thomas Mathew is a seasoned technology leader with over two decades of experience building large-scale, AI-powered platforms and leading high-performing engineering organizations across AdTech, HRTech, and eCommerce.

Prior to joining ThinkBio.Ai, Thomas led the global Ads organization at Indeed, where he scaled platforms supporting a $3B+ business to over $6.5B in revenue over three years. He has held senior engineering leadership roles at Rakuten, Yahoo, and i2 Technologies, delivering large-scale, mission-critical systems—supporting thousands of nodes, millions of transactions per day, and strict SLAs. Over his career, Thomas has built and scaled distributed engineering organizations from the ground up, growing teams from 30 to 400+ across North America, APAC, and EMEA regions. He has successfully integrated complex M&A technology ecosystems, led multi-billion-dollar platform modernizations, and architected next-generation AI/ML systems on scalable, cloud-native infrastructure.

At ThinkBio.Ai, Thomas is focused on building Data and AI platforms. With a Ph.D. from IIT Madras and a track record of delivering large-scale software systems, he brings a rare blend of academic rigor, deep technical expertise, and global leadership experience to tackling healthcare’s complex, data-intensive challenges with AI at scale.

Dr. Bobby J. Cherayil is a graduate of Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, India, where he received the MBBS and MD degrees, with specialization in pediatrics. He did post-doctoral training in molecular biology and immunology, initially at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and subsequently at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center in Boston. After completing clinical residency training requirements at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, New York, he returned to MGH to establish an independent laboratory in the Department of Pediatrics.

His research interest is in host-microbial interactions in the gastrointestinal tract, with a special focus on the innate immune response to Salmonella infection. His research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as well as private foundations and has resulted in the publication of over 70 scientific papers, review articles and book chapters. He is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School (HMS), and a Member of the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Faculty.

He has served as Associate Editor and Section Editor for the Journal of Immunology, a member of the Editorial Board of Infection and Immunity and an ad hoc reviewer for several other journals such as Blood, Journal of Clinical Investigation and Nature. He has participated in multiple national and international scientific review committees, including for the NIH, Oxford University, the C. Doppler Forschungsgesellschaft, the Agence Nationale de la Recherche and the Tyrolean Science Fund. In addition to his laboratory research, Dr. Cherayil has been actively involved in teaching and science communication throughout his career. He served as the co-director of two immunology courses at HMS and was a member of the faculty of annual vaccine courses held in India and South Africa. He is the author of The Logic of Immunity, a brief introduction to immunology for the general audience that was published by the Johns Hopkins University Press in 2024.