Suchitra Ella is Co-Founder and Director of Bharat Biotech International Limited.
Wiki/Biography
Suchitra Ella was born in 1963 in Thruthani, Tamil Nadu, India (age 56 in 2021). She graduated with a BA in Economics from the University of Madras. Later, she obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Patent Law from Narsar, Hyderabad. Suchitra also studied for a Diploma in Business Development from the University of South Carolina, Madison, USA. Before returning to India, Suchitra and her husband lived in the northern United States and the laid-back South. They returned to India and established a company in 1996. Suchitra had always wanted to join her husband in his dream of producing a vaccine and making it affordable. They established a company in 1998 called Bharat Biotech Private Limited. Bharat Biotech founded Covaxin, the first COVID-19 vaccine to be fully developed and manufactured in India with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
family
Suchitra Ella comes from a middle-class family.
Parents and siblings
Suchitra’s father was a mining engineer and her mother was a housewife. She has three sisters. One of Suchitra’s sisters lives in Hyderabad and the other two sisters live in Madras.
husband and children
Suchitra Elle’s husband’s name is Dr. Krishna Ella. He is an alumnus of the University of Hawaii and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is an Indian scientist, entrepreneur, and founder and chairman of Bharat Biotech. Suchitra and her husband lived in the United States and returned to India in 1996. Dr. Krishna Ella and Suchitra both grew up in Tamil Nadu.
Suchitra Ella and her husband Krishna Ella
Suchitra had two children, a son named Reechas Veerendra and a daughter. Suchitra’s son is married to Sahari, the granddaughter of Eenadu Group Chairman Cherukuri Ramoji. Suchitra’s daughter is a dermatologist.
Suchitra Ella with her son and daughter-in-law
Profession
Merge departments
Before becoming an entrepreneur, Suchitra Ella worked in customer operations at Waikiki Corporation and Woodman’s in the United States.
Co-Founder, Bharat Biotech
In 1996, after Suchitra and her husband Dr. Krishna Ella returned to India, they established a company in Hyderabad called Bharat Biotech Limited, an Indian multinational biotechnology company headquartered in Hyderabad. Suchitra Ella is the co-founder and joint managing director of the company. She invested Rs. 125 million, he worked very hard to start this company, from procuring land to getting government permission. Suchitra and her husband faced many financial issues while setting up their company. It took the company almost three years to launch its first product. Bharat Biotech is engaged in drug development, drug discovery, vaccine manufacturing, biotherapeutics, pharmaceuticals and healthcare products. The company currently has 700 employees. It has long been making waves in the vaccine world, launching remarkable vaccines against hepatitis B, swine flu and Zika. Covaxin is developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the National Institute of Virology (NIV) of the Indian Council of Medical Research. It is one of the two COVID-19 vaccines administered in the country since January 16, 2021. Bharat Biotech is one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the country.
In 2017, Suchitra and her husband, Dr. Krishna Ella, received an order from GAVI, the Global Vaccine Alliance, for a new typhoid vaccine. Ms. Ella is a strong pillar of support and guidance at Bharat Biotech, overseeing the company’s broad business operations. Ella is responsible for new projects, HR and administration, corporate communications and corporate affairs.Ella once said
“If my husband is the brains of the company, then I am the heart of the company.”
As Chairman of CII
Suchitra Elle served as the president of the CII Andhra Pradesh state assembly from 2012 to 2013.
Awards
- Suchitra Ella was awarded the Gene Valley Excellence Award at the inaugural Bio Asia 2021 event on February 22, 2021, for her pioneering achievements in vaccine research, development and commercialization, including Covaxin.
Suchitra Elle and husband Krishna Ella win Bio Asia Award
- Suchitra received the 2007 International Women’s Entrepreneurship Challenge Award from the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce.
- Suchitra was also awarded the FLO GR8 Women Achievement Award 2008 for her entrepreneurial excellence.
- Suchitra and her husband Dr. Krishna Ella received Padma Bhushan in Hyderabad on the 73rd day of the Republic.
Achievement
- Suchitra Ella has been nominated as the founding president of CII Indian Women’s Network, which claims to provide a platform for working women to come forward and discuss their issues.
CII Indian Women’s Network hosts seminar
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi also visited Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech and congratulated Suchitra Ella and the company for their achievements in Covaxin.
Suchitra Ella and Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Facts/Trivia
- Suchitra enjoys reading, listening to classical music and traveling to places of historical and natural beauty. Suchitra traveled a lot in her youth.
- According to Suchitra, when she was in school, she was not allowed to drive to and from get off work so that she could learn to handle things on her own. She travels by bicycle or on the school bus.
- Suchitra is a passionate and energetic woman who never stops. She worked more than 12 hours a day to start Bharat Biotech. She even once said that her company is like her third child. She always overcomes the challenges that come her way.
- Suchitra has supplied 1 billion doses of Covaxin to the Indian government with the help of her company.
- Suchitra said that Bharat Biotech is the second company in the world to produce a mercury-free hepatitis B vaccine and that their vaccine is 99% chemical-free.
- Suchitra Ella said that 200,000 doses of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, approved by the World Health Organization, have been supplied to Vietnam.
Suchitra Ella, Joint Managing Director, Bharat Biotech with Vuong Dinh Hue, Chairman of the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and his team
- Suchitra Ella chose Sanskrit as a second language during her school days and she considers it to be the best experience of her life.
- According to social media reports, Suchitra is also an organ donor.
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education