Strides Pharma Science Limited (‘Strides’) is pleased to announce that eminent corporate doyen Aditya Puri joins the Strides Group as an Advisor and also will be a Director of its associate Company, Stelis Biopharma (‘Stelis’).

Recognized as a stalwart of the Indian banking and financial services industry, Mr. Puri was the iconic founder-Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of HDFC Bank from its inception in 1994 until his retirement from the position in October 2020, earning the distinction of having been the longest-serving head of a private bank in India. Under his stewardship, the publicly traded bank scaled great heights to become India’s largest private sector lender by assets, India’s most valuable bank by market capitalization⁽¹⁾ and India’s most valuable brand for the sixth consecutive year in 2019⁽²⁾. Not only was Mr. Puri’s visionary leadership instrumental in HDFC Bank’s outstanding growth and value creation for all stakeholders, but it also led the way for several firsts and milestones for Indian private sector banking as a whole. Prior to setting up HDFC Bank, he was Chief Executive Officer of Citibank Malaysia with nearly two decades of overall banking experience across markets with Citibank. Mr. Puri has been conferred with several prestigious awards, accolades and titles for his exceptional contribution to Indian industry, including successive appearances in Barron’s world’s 30 best CEOs lists, Fortune’s global top 50 business persons list in 2016, the India Today Power List for 2019, and the Lifetime Achievement Award by Euromoney Awards of Excellence 2020, to name a few. Mr. Puri was inducted into the Chartered Accountants Hall of Fame by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), becoming the first member of ICAI to be honored with this award⁽³⁾. A profile by the Economist in October 2020 describing him as the world’s best banker only further underlined Mr. Puri’s towering international reputation.

Mr. Puri’s appointment to the Stelis Board comes at an exciting juncture for the company as it transitions from its incubation phase to a consolidation and growth phase to establish itself as a partner of choice globally with the aim of bringing world-class treatments at affordable costs to patients in both emerging and developed markets.

Commenting on the development, Aditya Puri said: “I look forward to working with Arun and building world-class institutions to produce high-quality affordable biotherapeutics and CDMO services including those needed to combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Group’s established parentage, global success and headstart in terms of basic infrastructure, gives me the opportunity to be involved in and guide Stelis and other Group endeavors in their exciting growth story.”

Commenting on the development, Arun Kumar, Founder & Chairman of the Board of Strides, said: “I am delighted to welcome Aditya as our Advisor and to the Stelis Board. This a huge vote of confidence in the potential of Stelis. Aditya’s illustrious legacy is well-known. Having nurtured HDFC Bank since inception, his deep experience will be extremely valuable for the Strides Group and Stelis in particular.  With Stelis poised for its next leg of growth, this is the right time to expand the Board, and ensure robust guidance and governance by the best possible industry minds. I look forward to working with Aditya and leveraging his expertise to take Stelis to new heights.”