Gaurav Shah, CEO of Rocket Pharmaceuticals & Grammy Award Winner

South Asian Trailblazers

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The founding CEO of a breakout biotech company AND a Grammy Award winner? Gaurav Shah is no stranger to dualities. In this episode, Simi speaks with the Co-Founder and CEO of Rocket Pharmaceuticals, a company developing first-in-class gene-modified cell therapies to treat rare diseases.
Prior to his role as founding CEO, Gaurav was a Global Program Head in the Cell & Gene Therapies Unit at Novartis, where he had strategic oversight of 12 functions and helped spearhead pivotal trials for patients with leukemia and lymphoma. His earlier roles at Novartis span being a Global Clinical Program Head for CART-19 and Biosimilars, and lead physician for Afinitor in several global oncology submissions. Gaurav started his career in industry at ImClone/Eli Lilly as a Medical Director overseeing oncology trials.

Gaurav graduated from Harvard College with a degree in Behavioral Neuroscience. He received his M.D. from Columbia University, completed his internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and hematology/oncology fellowship training at Memorial-Sloan Kettering. After receiving board certification in medical oncology, he served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Oncology at Columbia.
To find balance, Gaurav also has long explored his passion for Indian classical music. In 2019, he and his wife were Grammy nominees and in 2022, they won the Grammy for Best Children’s Album, for their album entitled A Colorful World. In this conversation, Simi explore's multidimensional career from medicine to music and the unexpected parallels between them.

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