Our People

Dr. R K Bammi

Chairman

Dr. R K Bammi obtained his MS and Ph.D from the University of California. He has nearly 35 years of experience in Pharmaceutical, R&D and manufacturing management. Dr. Bammi has authored a book on Dioscorea.

At Sami Labs, he focuses on streamlining the R&D operations.

Dr. Muhammed Majeed

Founder & Managing Director

Dr. Muhammed Majeed was born and raised in Kerala, India.

After graduating in Pharmacy from Kerala University, Majeed emigrated to USA in 1975. He continued his graduate studies in Long Island University, New York (M.S.) and St. John’s University New York (Ph.D.) specializing in Industrial Pharmacy.

Dr. Majeed has over 15 years of research experience in progressively responsible research positions with Pfizer Inc., Carter-Wallace and Paco Research.

Sabinsa Corporation, a research oriented pharmaceutical and nutraceutical marketing company, was founded by Dr. Majeed in 1988. Although the transition from a researcher to a marketing company was a tremendous challenge, Dr. Majeed handled it successfully. At present, this New Jersey based firm employs over 60 people.

In 1991, Dr. Majeed set up a research group at Bangalore, India called Sami Labs Ltd. The facility now has over 500 people working for the company. Sami Labs combines manufacturing and global marketing of nutraceuticals and fine chemicals with cutting edge research.

SAMI’s research based new products picked up recognition from the Indian Government as well. Sami received the National award for quality products from the PRESIDENT OF INDIA in the area of Basic Drugs . Both QUALITY and INNOVATION were the key components that resulted in the award. In addition, Sami pioneered the research and marketing of a number of phytonutrients based on Indian raw materials. Sami Labs was also honored twice by the Spices Board of India, receiving one award for developing a market for Garcinia cambogia and the other for export performance.

Dr. Majeed received awards from several Indian American groups for his enterprising work and progress. He also received the 1996 Entrepreneur of the year award by the National Federation of Asian Americans.

In 1997, Sabinsa Corporation had been ranked America’s 90th fastest growing company by INC. Magazine. Sabinsa also ranked 7th in New Jersey among the fastest growing Technology based companies (New Jersey Fast 50).

In early 1999, Sami Labs started a division called Sami Spices based at Cochin, India to promote procurement and marketing of spices.

Dr. M D Nair

Director

Dr. M D Nair holds a Ph.D. from USA in Organic Chemistry. He has worked with CIBA - GEIGY pharmaceutical research group in Switzerland and Mumbai. He has also served as the Vice President of SPIC. He is a Board member for various companies.

Humayun Dhanrajgir

Director

Humayun Dhanrajgir was the Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Glaxo India where he spent more than 2 decades in senior positions. He was also the President of OPPI (Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India) for 2 years in 1990-92 having previously been its Vice President for 2 years. He subsequently became the Managing Director of Kodak India and retired in 2000.

He is currently an Independent Director on several Boards notably Chairman, Emcure Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Director, Cadila Healthcare Ltd, HDFC Asset Management Co. Ltd, Neuland Laboratories Ltd, Lintas India Pvt Ltd,etc. He is a trustee of Breach Candy Hospital Trust and Dr. P.V.Cherian Artificial Kidney Trust (Patron being Governor of Maharashtra). He is a Global Advisory Member of Asian Centre for Corporate Governance, Associate of Pappas Ventures, North Carolina, USA and Member, India Advisory Board, U.S.Pharmacopeia.

P N Venugopal

Director

P N Venugopalan has an impressive working experience of 40 years. He started off his career at the age of 19 as a Medical Representative in Schering, where he went on to become the Assistant Sales Manager and left the company as the Divisional Manager.

Venugopalan has also worked as Director for over a decade in Hoechst Marion Roussel Ltd, AgrEvo India Ltd, Optrex India Ltd, UB Pharma ( Kenya ) Ltd, and UB Pharmaceuticals Ltd. He was also involved in the overwhelming growth of Carews Pharmaceuticals Ltd and Dominion Chemical Industries Ltd.

V.G Nair

Director & Chief Executive Officer

VG was the Managing Director of Karnataka Chemsyn Limited for over a decade and half. He has considerable experience in the API and Formulation areas. Prior to joining Chemsyn, he was Vice President, Life Science Division of the UB Group.

VG has also occupied senior positions overseas such as Manager - International Division of Emirates National Bank Limited and Chief Executive Officer of Emirates National Holdings, Dubai, prior to returning to India to join the UB group.

Dr. V. S Somanath

President, Group Finance

Dr. V.S Somanath is a Pharmacy Graduate, an MBA and has Ph D. in Corporate Finance. He comes to us with a rich experience of working in State Financial institutions, Commercial Banks, Venture Capital and Angel Funds. His broad areas of specialization are international finance, mergers and acquisitions and derivate markets. His last assignment was as the Chief Executive Officer of Displaytronics, an IT enabled services company.

K B Siva Prakash

Chief Operating Officer

Sivaprakash completed his Masters Degree in Applied Chemistry from Cochin University of Science & Technology. He then worked with Smith Kline Beecham and Reckitt & Colman at their R&D centers as a product development scientist where he gained valuable knowledge and experience in the field of Pharmaceuticals and Aroma Chemicals.

He joined Sami Labs Ltd. in 1994 and initially worked in various capacities on the product development and manufacturing of a range of chemicals and herbal extracts.

He was subsequently responsible for setting up an aroma chemical company (Organica Aromatics) for the Sami Group. He was the president of this company for three years and was extremely successful in establishing the aroma chemical business.

He also has served their overseas marketing company Sabinsa Corporation in the R&D and in Business development section. He has a thorough knowledge of the Nutraceuticals and Cosmetic markets in USA and other parts of the world. He currently heads up all the operation activities for the Sami/Sabinsa Group.

Dr. S Natarajan

Advisor/Sr. Vice President - Research & Devlopment

Dr. S Natarajan has a Ph.D. from the University of Madras, India. After getting his Ph.D, he spent over five years in USA as a Research Associate in the University of North Carolina (USA), Duke University (USA) and Standford University in California. He has to his credit more than 30 publications in national and international journals.

He started his career as a Senior R&D Scientist in Amrutanjan Limited, and later to become its Director. He was also one of the founding directors of Amrutanjan Fine Chemicals Limited and served the company for more than 20 years.

Dr. Natarajan , besides heading the R&D Department of Sami Labs for the past five years, he was also in the Board of Directors.

His expertise includes Synthetic & Organic Chemistry, Natural Products' Isolation & Characterization, Development of Analytical Methods and scaling up of products from the lab to the industrial level.

Sameer J Nair

Sr. Vice President - Administration

Sameer J. Nair has experience of over 15 years in various verticals of Management. Prior to joining Sami Group of companies, he had an SME focused rich exposure in Corporate Finance. He holds an MBA in Marketing and a Graduate Degree in Physics.

In addition to the responsibilities at Sami Labs, Sameer independently manages Clinworld Pvt Ltd., an associate company in the contract research domain.