About

I'm an experienced professional bringing a unique combination of business management and scientific expertise along with strategic leadership experience and people skills with a global outlook. I have over 15 years of international corporate experience in Pharma and Healthcare sectors in various leadership roles in addition to managing high-value innovation projects.

My research in business strategy is centred around managing various innovation-driven partnerships and resides in the interface of strategy and international business. In my technical research, my focus has been on “Green Chemistry” and “Drug Discovery”.

My teaching is practice-based, international student-centred and covers areas like Strategy, International Business, Innovation Management, Project Management and Leadership and Change Management. In my academic roles, I have helped SME leaders in devising and implementing strategies aimed at business recovery and growth through business reliance. As a Programme Lead in Help To Grow Management Programme for the University of Derby, I actively engaged with business leaders to help them in devising business strategy for mitigating risks arising out of various uncertainties.

Teaching responsibilities

I lead and teach undergraduate, postgraduate executive modules in Strategy, and International Business, alongside supervising postgraduate dissertations.

Professional interests

I assist business leaders with:

• Business strategy – going back to basics
• Business resilience and future–proofing business
• Sustainability oriented business strategy
• Internationalisation strategy

Research interests

In my academic research, I study the strategic dimensions around managing knowledge-intensive partnerships – what makes a partnership to succeed and what are the contributing factors towards partnership longevity.

Qualifications

• PhD, Strategy and International Business, Essex Business School, University of Essex, UK, 2023
• PhD, Bioorganic Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, 2000

Recent conferences

• Das Sarma, K, Demirbag, M. and Sengupta A. ‘Managing R&D outsourcing partnerships: an empirical analysis of the mediating role of reintegration in the relationship of governance and performance outcome in Drug Discovery outsourcing’ – AIB 2021, June 28 – July 2
• Das Sarma, K, ‘Strategic Planning for Business Resilience and Longevity’ – East Midlands Chamber of Commerce Business Resilience Conference, Feb. 12, 2021
• Das Sarma, K. and Demirbag, M., ‘Alliance management in outsourcing partnerships: an integrative research framework’ – AIB 2020, July 3–6, 2020
• Panellist, The University of Petroleum and Energy Studies WebTalks: Conquering the Monster: Drug Hunt for COVID-19 – a panel discussion, May 02, 2020
• The power of goal setting (online), The University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, India, Jan. 17, 2020, Sep. 01, 2020 and Aug 17, 2021

Experience in industry

I have over 15 years of corporate experience mainly in Pharma and Healthcare sectors and have assumed various technical and leadership roles. As a senior leadership team member, I was actively engaged in devising and implementing organisational strategy sometimes under extreme uncertainty leading to business continuity and eventual growth. I have implemented various change management initiatives. Additionally, I have expertise in project and portfolio management, marketing and business development and managing multinational and multicultural teams.

International experience

I worked in the USA, Germany, and India in addition to working in the UK. Moreover, I have led or was part of many multinational teams and partnerships.

Additional interests and activities

I am an avid photographer and enjoy capturing the bounty of nature through my lens.

Instagram: @koushik_photography

In the media

Blogs

• SME Resilience Through Decoding Business Strategy
• Isolation: A Bane or Boon?   

Press

• Interview published in, Managing Knowledge, Midlands Business Insider (May 2021 issue)
• Business Matters: SME resilience through decoding business strategy (May 24, 2021)
• Panellist, Power of Leadership, Insider Online Forum (Nov 26, 2020)
• Isolation concerns raised by business academic (Nov 25, 2020)

Recent publications

Peer–reviewed conference papers (management)

• Das Sarma, K, Demirbag, M. and Sengupta A. 2021. Managing R&D outsourcing partnerships: an empirical analysis of the mediating role of reintegration in the relationship of governance and performance outcome in Drug Discovery outsourcing, AIB 2021, 28 June – 2 July 
• Das Sarma, K and Demirbag, M., 2020. Alliance management in outsourcing partnerships: an integrative research framework, AIB 2020, Miami, FL, USA, 3–6 July 

Selected scientific publications

• Rana, D., Kalamuddin, M., Sundriyal, S., Jaiswal, V., Sharma, G., Das Sarma, K., Sijwali, P., Mohmmed, A., Malhotra, P. and Mahindroo, N., 2020. Identification of antimalarial leads with dual falcipain-2 and falcipain-3 inhibitory activity. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry, 28(1), p.115155
• Gopinath, V., Rao, M., Shivahare, R., Vishwakarma, P., Ghose, S., Pradhan, A., Hindupur, R., Das Sarma, K., Gupta, S., Puri, S., Launay, D. and Martin, D., 2014. Design, synthesis, ADME characterization and antileishmanial evaluation of novel substituted quinoline analogs. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 24(9), pp.2046-2052
• Biswas, K., Gholap, R., Srinivas, P., Kanyal, S. and Das Sarma, K.*, 2014. β-Substituted γ-butyrolactams from mucochloric acid: synthesis of (±)-baclofen and other γ-aminobutyric acids and useful building blocks. RSC Adv., 4(5), pp.2538-2545
• Biswas, K., Kumar, A. and Das Sarma, K.*, 2013. One-Pot High-Throughput Synthesis of a 160-Membered Library of Methyl 3,5-Diaryl-isoxazoline-5-carboxylate Pharmacophores by a 2·2·2-Component Reaction. ACS Combinatorial Science, 15(5), pp.255-260
• Zhang, J., Das Sarma, K. and Curran, T., 2013. Recent Progress in the Chemistry of Mucohalic Acids: Versatile Building Blocks in Organic Synthesis. Synlett, 24(05), pp.550-569
• Thur, Y., Bhalerao, A., Munshi, Z., Pansare, N., Mann, K., Hanauer, G., Kley, H., Nappe, S., Weiss-Haljiti, C., Ostermann, C., Zitt, C., Schaefer, M., Mondal, D., Ali Siddiki, A., Armugam, V., Gudaghe, V., Gupta, M., Rayudu, P., Dautzenberg, F. and Das Sarma, K.*, 2012. Structure–activity relationships of 2-arylamido-5,7-dihydro-4H-thieno[2,3-c]pyran-3-carboxamide derivatives as cannabinoid receptor agonists and their analgesic action. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 22(24), pp.7314-7321
• Khan, M., Zhang, J., Das Sarma, K.* and Ganguly, B., 2012. Origins of reversing diastereoselectivity of α,β-dichloro-γ-butenolides and γ-butyrolactams in direct vinylogous aldol addition: a computational study. RSC Advances, 2(22), p.8460.
• Das Sarma, K., Zhang, J. and Curran, T., 2007. Novel Synthons from Mucochloric Acid:  The First Use of α,β-Dichloro-γ-butenolides and γ-Butyrolactams for Direct Vinylogous Aldol Addition. The Journal of Organic Chemistry, 72(9), pp.3311-3318
• Das Sarma, K., Zhang, J., Huang, Y. and Davidson, J., 2006. Amino Acid Esters and Amides for Reductive Amination of Mucochloric Acid: Synthesis of Novel γ-Lactams, Short Peptides and Antiseizure Agent Levetiracetam (Keppra®). European Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2006(16), pp.3730-3737
• Pirrung, M. and Das Sarma, K., 2004. Multicomponent Reactions Are Accelerated in Water. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 126(2), pp.444-445