Why Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw Wants Niece Claire To Take Over

'Leadership is about understanding how a business works, how it is shaped, built, and expanded.'

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has spent more than four decades building Biocon from a rented garage in Bengaluru into one of the world's largest biosimilars companies.

Now at 73, the celebrated biotech entrepreneur is thinking about what comes next -- and who comes after her.

In a video conversation with Sohini Das/Business Standard, Mazumdar-Shaw, executive chairperson of Biocon, explained why she has chosen her niece Claire Mazumdar, as her successor, outlining a five-year transition plan that will eventually see Claire take over as chairperson.

Biocon Succession Plan

Why do you think Claire is your successor? What roles will her brother Eric and her husband Thomas Roberts play at Biocon?

If you look at Claire, along with Eric and Thomas, you will see that they bring complementary skill sets and deep expertise across several fields that can steer Biocon's future growth.

Eric is a professor of artificial intelligence at California Institute of Technology and a very interesting combination of AI and economics, which helps us drive the strategy to become a strong AI-led company as a group. I see that as a major contributor to how we are seeing the future.

Claire has a very good worldview of the biotech and health care business.

She has been a successful entrepreneur with a great network of investors, understands how to build companies and how to deal with investor interests.

You need someone who can understand the way investors value companies, and she has done a great job for Bicara.

She is my chosen successor because she has very strong leadership capabilities -- she's a risk taker, very well networked, highly respected and has proved herself a successful entrepreneur.

As we move forward, it's not just about biosimilars and generics.

It's also going to be about novel biologics, novel formulations, molecules, devices and drug delivery.

This is high-end innovation, and Claire understands that segment very well.

What she can do to take Biocon to the next level is much greater than what I would want to do at this stage.

I will remain involved for the next five years, but beyond that, Claire can do an excellent job.

Thomas is a thoughtful health care expert and oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. He understands the US health care system works, and is working closely with our commercial teams.

He has served on the board of Biocon Biologics for several years and is expected to join the Biocon board around August.

Together, the three of them can play a vital role in shaping Biocon's future.

Claire Mazumdar Leadership Vision

While Claire has led a startup, will managing a large organisation like Biocon be difficult?

I built Biocon from my garage.

Leadership is about understanding how a business works, how it is shaped, built, and expanded. Claire understands that very well.

She has grown Bicara from a three-member team into an organisation with nearly 100 employees today, supported by an R&D team in India.

She is used to dealing with people and has shown a very good understanding of people dynamics.

I think she understands Biocon better than anyone else I can bring in from outside.

AI-Led Biocon Future

What is your 10-year vision for Biocon, and how does Claire fit into it?

Today, a large part of it is my vision, and it is driven by the fact that while we are in biosimilars and generics, we cannot afford to continue to be just a me-too company.

Innovators have set a benchmark that we have tried to emulate, and there are a lot of people now emulating us.

If we continue just doing more of what we are doing, there will be no differentiation.

We have to constantly innovate to be different even in biosimilars through drug delivery systems, new formulations, oral technologies, AI-led development.

We need to be agile. I also want to develop novel biologics, which are going to be prompted by AI. AI is also going to help us design new molecules.

But to do all of that, you need to create an ecosystem that understands how to take those ideas from lab to market in a very predictable, seamless, efficient way.

That will be the path charted out, and I think Claire would be an excellent person to drive that vision.

Biocon Board Transition Strategy

When is Claire likely to join the Biocon board, and will she be based in India or the US?

These are early days.

The structure I envisage is professional management, and the family plays a strategic and advisory role at the board level -- not on a day-to-day operational level at all.

Whether Claire is based in the US or keeps shuttling, it doesn't matter.

In today's world, she can come to India four times a year, spend a few weeks at a time and run the board meetings.

What matters is thought leadership.

Technology is transforming this world -- you don't need to be physically rooted in any part of the world.

Right now, Claire is not on any board except some subsidiaries of Biocon Biologics.

I do have a plan -- in the foreseeable future, she will be on the board of Biocon.

The key is I have the five-year runway to basically transition her into my seat.

How strategic will the promoter family's role be on the board?

My brother and sister-in-law have been part of the Biocon group boards for decades.

My brother Ravi joined shortly before we went public -- it must be 1999-2000. He's a professor of mathematics and has helped us a lot with statistical analysis.

When I founded Biocon, I gave him some shares, so he has been a proud shareholder from the beginning.

My sister-in-law, Catherine Rosenberg, serves on the board of Syngene International. She is a professor of computer science and has helped guide the group's technology initiatives.

Claire and Eric are their children.

I'm very blessed.

I also have another brother who is not part of my business -- he's in the fashion industry and the music industry.

I made sure it's because of the skills and capabilities that Eric, Claire and Tom bring to Biocon that they are on the board. They play a board role.

That purpose of access and affordability has to be driven from the board downwards.

Management is really going to focus on the business deliverables.

There is going to be a very clear distinction between the board and management.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw Exit Timeline

Have you defined roles for Eric and Thomas?

Eric has served as a non-executive director on the Biocon board since 2021.

We have created a science and technology committee at Biocon, which Eric is driving.

We also have an AI task force across the group, being driven by Catherine, Eric and Vijay Chandru, who just joined the board of Syngene. He comes with a huge amount of computational knowledge in biology.

So he, Catherine, Eric and our people like Mandar Ghatnekar and Gaurav Kushwaha -- they're all in this task force together, deploying AI across the group.

Eric also chairs Biocon's science and technology transformation committee.

Do you think five years is the right timeframe for the transition?

Personally, I think five years is the right timeframe.

I am 73 now, and in five years I will be 78.

I think that's a good time for me to finally say it's time to be succeeded.

Claire's got quite a few years to understand what the company is doing -- it's not just about my vision, it's about understanding how the company functions and how it is being built.

She's also got the support of Eric and Thomas to give her that guidance.

In my view, Claire is the visionary in biotech.

Eric can lend a lot of vision for AI and technology.

Thomas has a deep understanding of health systems.

I have this unique blend of people who can help me.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff