Rav Seeruthun.

EMBA alumnus, Dr Rav Seeruthun, joins operational board of Roche UK

6 October 2016

The article at a glance

Dr Rav Seeruthun (EMBA 2013) is appointed to the operational board at Roche UK as Medical Director. Roche is the number one …

Dr Rav Seeruthun (EMBA 2013) is appointed to the operational board at Roche UK as Medical Director.

Roche is the number one biotechnology company worldwide, with 17 marketed biopharmaceuticals, allowing better targeted-therapies for patients. Roche employs over 90,000 people globally and has a market cap of $213BN. It is the biggest research and development investor in the healthcare industry, the fifth biggest across all industries, investing over 8.9 billion Swiss Francs per year.

Rav comments “Having come from a background as an NHS GP and then transitioning to the Pharmaceutical Industry I felt that the Executive MBA would facilitate my career progression from team leader/contributor to board member. The support of the faculty and my class mates provided the network I needed to take the next step on this journey”

The General Manager of Roche UK, Richard Erwin, commented that “Rav has developed into this role within the UK affiliate by being bold with his career path, taking up challenging positions in different specialist functions and flourishing with each new opportunity.”

Rav studied medicine at Imperial College, is qualified as a General Practitioner and is on the specialist register as a Pharmaceutical Physician. He worked within the NHS for eight years before joining the pharmaceutical industry in 2007. Prior to Roche, Rav worked as Senior Director of Commercial Medical Affairs for PPD a clinical research organisation, as Head of Clinical Affairs for Napp in Cambridge and as Head of CNS and GI for Eisai Europe.

Having joined Roche in 2014 during his first year on the EMBA as Country Medical Lead for the Breast Cancer franchise, Rav was key to campaigning for reform in how cancer medicines are assessed in the UK. He then moved from the Medical Directorate to the commercial part of the business where he was Integrated Franchise Leader for the Pipeline Franchise where he set-up the Pipeline Prioritisation programme to help the UK business prioritise the Pipeline assets that would make the most difference to UK patients. Most recently, Rav has been heading up the Rare Diseases Franchise, and has been instrumental in the delivery of the recent Fight IPF disease awareness campaign.